Cause of Henry and Henry and
by shadow-walker12
Summary: When the flu epidemic among the vampires of Boston is at its worst, Aidan is forced into a decision either if he will stay in Boston with his friends or to leave Boston for any saver area. He knows all too well that his son Henry, being so young and starving since weeks , might make a deadly mistake some day; I couldn t live with Henry simply dying. Keeps aloof of season 3 with it
1. Chapter 1

**Cause of Henry and Henry and….**

All characters belong to the writers of Being Human SyFy and Blood Ties. I own nothing and write only for entertainment. No copyright infringement intended.

Rating: not suitable for minors. At least age 16.

Location; from Boston to Toronto, Canada.

Characters: Henry Durham, Aidan Waite, Josh Levinson, Sally Malik, Henry Fitzroy, Vicki Nelson, Dr. Rajani Mohadevan and original male and female characters.

The story takes place after Aidan was resurrected from his grave and the vampire flu epidemic is at its worst.

_Chapter 1_

The night was dark and the front lights of the cream colored Volvo pierced through the heavy fog which seemed to crawl over the highway like a liquid white mass. Aidan was staring through the windshield with narrowed eyes. Even for him and his vampire eyesight it was not easy not to lose track on this road.

They were driving from Boston to Canada since hours.

The flu had wasted the city and its urban areas and to get blood that was untainted had become a problem. The epidemic had overrun the human population who provided themselves with a vaccination or simply fought it down. Strangely the virus had spread over to the vampires by drinking or contact with blood from sick people. Despite the word that a vampire could not get inflicted by sickness or death itself, it had developed a deadly threat for them. Some of them, who were of more mind when it came to science, discussed if the virus was a mutation within vampires that went to destroy their cellular structure and so causing sickness and finally death by dissolving into dust as if they had been staked usually.

Aidan couldn´t take his eyes from the highway but he heard the calm breathing of his son Henry beside him in the passenger´s seat. The navigation screen showed him a remaining distance of some 35 miles, which could become the same distance like from earth to the dark side of moon under the currently conditions.

This was a travel out of sheer desperation. Not that Aidan had any hope to find a cure in general but he has had a long quarrel with Josh and Sally who had tried to urge him in staying. Josh himself couldn´t offer a possibility to stop the epidemic. He was a nurse, no scientist, who was educated in genetic engineering or development of vaccines. Most of the vampires in and around Boston had died or run from the town and the whole area as in old times of the plague. After a dispute about staying or running that had spread over two weeks, Aidan had decided to take his son with him in order to save both lives until a cure was found.

Finally Josh and Sally gave in, recognizing that taking refuge anywhere far from Boston was the best in the moment.

The miles ran through under the wheels and the monotone sound of them on the moist asphalt had lulled Henry into a semi-sleep. Aidan was concentrating onto the lane and after a while a coughing sound let twitch him. He reduced the speed and shot Henry a closer look.

"What´s up, Henry?" Aidan sounded more than concerned.

Not him!

Not my son!

The thought let his mind tumble over.

Henry answered his look. He shoved himself up a bit in his seat and shook his head.

"No...nothing. Just choked on my own saliva..." Henry mumbled and he cleared his throat.

Aidan´s view was full of doubt, but he told himself not to turn up on it. He had gotten overly nervous since the plague had spread around humans and vampires the last few weeks.

"...kay..." Aidan mumbled and tried to concentrate onto the road again. The car navigation showed some 5 miles to Toronto.

They would find any shelter amidst such a large town, hopefully far away enough from Boston to be safe from the disease, he thought. When he drove the car up onto the highway that would lead them through the city, Aidan went on after a long pause.

"I got us this little hotel near…what is it...near Queens Park Crescent. Nothing famous, just simple...we can stay there among a herd of students for a while as a base of walking the streets in search for some clean blood...Maybe I should get us food from a club..."

"That won´t be safe..."

"Or hang out at the hospital´s back yard, waiting for guys coming out of the blood donor department"

"May..be..." Henry yawned and his voice trailed off when he sank back in his seat. Aidan watched him with knitted brows.

Was Henry simply tired or was something really going into the wrong direction with him? To calm his concern Aidan kept up with the first option. Henry had survived decades, against all odds and he had lived in the streets for long, hiding, surviving. He knew how to be careful. The fog inside the city of Toronto wasn´t less than outside. Probably the nearness to the giant Lake Ontario was the reason. The dim light despite the lamps in the streets reminded Aidan of London. He had been there as a kid before his father settled over to Massachusetts. He allowed himself a short moment of memories of the overcrowded city of his childhood, before he turned right into the smaller Baldwin Street. The street was empty at this time but for a few pedestrians. The weather was no invitation for a walk and he hoped that fog wasn´t the standard for Toronto.

"I don´t wanna roam Toronto like the grim Reaper or this mad guy from Stoker´s grace...Dracula. The only thing I won´t need is a waving velvet cape! And a hissing!" Aidan bared his fangs and let out a hissing gnarl in a copy of Lugosi. Only his hands fixed on the steering wheel kept him from bowing down and to spin an imaginary cape.

Henry shot him a skeptical look, shook his head and let himself sink back into his seat.

**Huron Street, Nelson Investigations**

Vicki closed the file and put down her glasses, her fingertips massaging the base of her nose. A gesture she always did when her weakening eyes grew tired. Since the diagnosis of a progressive Retinitis Pigmentosa ward her off from the Police Service, she worked as a private investigator.

"Shall I stay in the office, Ms. Nelson or can I...?" a girl or rather young woman asked her while she set down the hot cup of tea in front of her boss. She wore a mini skirt with a red tartan design and Vicki watched critically how the material draped tightly around her hips. Her legs where covered by black lace tights and the heels of her shoes were some four inches high. Vicki wondered how her assistant could walk around on them the whole day and parts of the night. She herself preferred booties with a flat sole. Way better when it came to hunt down a villain.

"No, it´s okay, Coreen...You can leave now. Henry will come in soon..." she looked at her watch; "...sundown is ahead but I don´t think he can make use of this thick fog. No UV protection! Sadly. Sometimes I wish it would be different..."

"Thank you Ms. Nelson. Then I can go to the club sooner. But you should not complain about Henry...he does what he can to help you. He´s such a nice guy, Ms. Nelson and you should really sometimes be somewhat more..." Coreen answered with a smile. Before she could went on, Vicki interrupted her;

"Be somewhat more...what? More...open?" Vicki watched her with knitted brows.

"For example! Henry...he always tries to...convince you to be a bit more...uhm...a bit more receptive for his charm, Ms. Nelson. If...you ask me...I mean, if he would ask me for, I would say Yes without even thinking about it!" Coreen shot her a grin, her hand at her heart.

"Do you try to suggest I shall say Yes, only to be pulled into his bed...like his meal-on-legs?" Vicki´s voice sounded pissed.

"Ms. Nelson! Henry would never look at you as a simple meal-on-legs! I really don´t understand how you can mistake his courtship as a sourcing of...food? Oh my god! He loves you!" Coreen stared at her in pure disbelief.

"We still had this theme a short time ago. I told you; a half blind PI and a vampire! That won´t run well!" Vicki protested and set the cup of tea back onto the table where she barely missed the pack of files in front of her.

"Damn eyes!" she cursed to herself, then directed to her assistant; "Look, this is the damn evidence! I can´t even manage this damn cup without spilling the tea!" She resigned with a sigh and turned her view to the window where the sunset now progressed but they hadn´t seen any sun since two days because of the persisting fog. The grey vision added to her mood.

The last case had been a guy cheating his wife. This nerd hadn´t tried to hide it a bit more and Vicki had felt no pity with his wife. The woman had been walking through her life blindfolded, didn´t recognize all the small hints that her matrimony had gone down the drain long ago. Vicki couldn´t understand how blind she had been. She never would have allowed a man to betray her like this. But his wife had simply been stupid. She earned no better.

Coreen watched her boss, then, when Vicki gave her a nod, she smiled slightly.

"Good night, Ms. Nelson! And take a rest...Henry wouldn´t like it when you would become ill because of being an investigationholic!"

"Investigationholic?"

"Yup!" Coreen closed.

Damn, her assistant was very creative with generating new vocabulary. Shaking her head she looked at her, bit her a good night and Coreen left. The door fell shut with a soft pong.

Some streets ago from Vicki´s office, a man in a leather jacket strolled along the sidewalk, watching the people who were waiting in front of the entrance to a club. One from a lot of clubs in the university district. The mostly young guests elbowed their way through the entrance where a guard checked their ID´s for the appropriate minimum age of 21 because the club served alcohol.

Aidan sucked up the smell of warm bodies. The promise of nutrition. Blood. The expectation let rise his hunger. He hadn´t fed in a while but he had to be careful now. Point one; he was in another city, didn´t know the level up to which people were willing to give in into blood-letting. Boston has had his blood dens where it had been so easy and safe to feed. The plague had not only changed this but wasted Boston in an unimaginably way. Point two; he didn´t know anything about a potential threat that was probably hiding within these bodies. No information had come down to Boston about any spreading to cities in a large distance. What doesn´t mean that it was safe. Simply a lack of information. He could only hope for a safe shelter and source for him and his son. They had split up this evening to make a feeding relatively safe. Not so good to act as a pair and then to be caught up amidst a feeding in a dark back yard of a club or house.

When the guard had checked Aidan´s ID, he entered the dimly lighted club. It was rather dark than anything. Tables and seats arranged along the walls in half round alcoves, the center of the main room was made up as a dance floor. Spotlights painted their colorful patterns on the ground and the dancing guests.

The music was loud and Aidan had to adapt to it. It was a strong difference to the silence of the last 15 months which he had spent grounded. He walked over the dance floor when the DJ finished a song and some of the guests went back to their alcoves again. His eyes adapted to the semi dark and the circling lights very fast. Inside the club the air seemed to vibrate from heat, the heat that emanated from the bodies of the dancers. A mixture of perfume, sweat and blood that he could almost smell through the skin. When he reaches one of the alcoves the smell of blood grew more intense. By instinct he followed it and he saw a young woman sitting on a seat. She was wearing high heel sandals and one of it was shoved under the table. She sighed and her left ankle was lifted onto her right knee. Her fingers felt for the bow of the ankle and Aidan saw that a scratched blister was the reason.

"May I help you, Miss?"

"Ugh. Guess not...really...", she mumbled while she tried to suck up some liquid from the blister with a tissue; "This damn strap! These things had cost me a lot...only to ruin my feet the first evening I´m gonna dancing!" She looked up and shot Aidan a smiling view. Her lips were softly curved and she wore a lipstick in a restrained red tone and some decent rouge on her cheeks. All to flatter her beautiful face. Not one of these girls who buried themselves under layers of make-up in garish colors and styling.

The decent make-up made her look natural.

"You should not do that..." Aidan directed to her ankle.

"What?"

"You should not use a tissue to suck this up. Small particles of this material may cause a slight inflammation that delays the healing..."

"Are you a doctor?" She said smilingly and let the tissue drop. Aidan sighed, bit his tongue. The slight smell of the blood made the animal rising within him. The animalistic side of a vampire. God, he hadn´t fed in a while and now he had to keep himself back. Get that under control or you will go right for her wrist or her throat, he commanded to himself. He brought his face under control, smiled at her.

"No. No doctor, just a nurse..."

"A nurse! Did they hire you for this job?" Obviously she thought him to be part of the club´s staff.

"No. I´m in for some fun...I´m off shift now and try to relax a bit..." Aidan took the seat beside her and carefully grabbed her ankle to check it.

"You gonna have a band-aid?" she asked.

"No, but I will get you one. They should have it." Aidan rose from his seat and went over to the bar. He waved to the waiter and the man nodded, came over to him.

"Two cola please..."Aidan ordered ; "And do you have a band-aid for my girlfriend? She scratched her ankle..."

"Yeap..." the waiter filled up to glasses with Cola, putting them on the bar and then he dived under the counter. When he came up again, he reached Aidan a band-aid.

"Would that do?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you. How much?" Aidan directed to the glasses.

"Eight bucks. Band-aid is for free..."

"Nice service..." He paid and took the Cola and went back to the young woman.

Aidan bent down and taped the band-aid over the open blister on her ankle, set her foot gently down to the ground. Carefully she slipped back into the sandal and smiled.

"Thank you, you are so kind..."

"You´re welcome! Wanna drink something? I ordered us some Cola. Little refreshment. I´m gonna need that right now. The shift was strenuous..." Aidan answered and he bent nearer, inhaling her scent. It was tempting but he kept himself back.

When they would be outside there would be time enough to care for his hunger, he thought. The club was crowded and it won´t be good idea to feed in here. Too much witnesses. The risk was too high that anybody could be approaching just in the wrong moment.

The woman sipped on her glass and Aidan drank too.

He could manage some stuff by experience, had tried this and that. As long as it didn´t contain any specific herbs like juniper or garlic his body could cope with it in small amounts. Cola was a mixture of water, caffeine, sugar and aroma...nothing dangerous.

The DJ put on some new music and Aidan took advantage of the situation.

"Any minds if we dance? Do you think your ankle can handle this? Only one dance?" Aidan suggested and the woman nodded. She rose from her seat and Aidan grabbed her hand, led her to the dance floor. It reminded him of his human days when he had begged a lady for a dance on a ball in one of the better houses. As an soldier in uniform he had access to the society of Boston, in the trail of some highly-decorated officers. Aidan had reached the level of a Lieutenant. Not that bad for a man descending from a family of a pressman. His father had founded a printing office. And Aidan had wanted to succeed him in it. But the war and Bishop had made his plans going down the drain.

Aidan and the woman were moving over the dance floor and he fell into the rhythm easily. Step by step he came nearer to her, laying an arm around her hip, the other around her shoulder. Obviously she didn´t mind and he bent his head to her shoulder. Her smell was tempting. He felt his fangs itching to fall, bit down hard and kept his lips closed until he felt them retracting again.

Wrong moment.

"What´s your name? For sure not Nurse...!" She laughed gently, lifted her head to look in his face. Fortunately Aidan had brought his facial expression back under control.

"Aidan." And before she could ask more he went on;

"And what is yours, honey?"

"Isabel. My mom called me Isabelle. That´s French. My mom is from France...we came over here before I was born..."

"And your daddy? Is he from France too?" Aidan replied and gently maneuvered her slightly in direction of the back side exit that lead to the court outside. Probably. But mostly the clubs had exits to the back yard. Guests tended to go outside for special purposes. He smiled on the inside and it was shining through, giving his face such a trustworthy expression.

He knew pretty well about the effect he could have on women if everything was going well. Beside compelling them.

"My daddy is from here. His parents came over here from England in 1941...They left cuz of World War 2..."

"So they were refugees?"

"Uhm...partly. Their home in London was destroyed and my Grandpa was afraid for his five children. So they decided to leave..." She tilted her head to the side, licked her lip and looked into Aidan´s eyes which stayed human. When he smiled at her confidentially, Isabel laid her head against Aidan´s shoulder and he closed his arms around her more tightly. She cuddled into his embrace.

Slowly they had arrived the back exit and Aidan whispered into her ear;

"Wanna go outside for a moment? It´s pretty hot in here..." his voice became a bit more suggestive, compelling.

"Oh...yes...let´s get some fresh air..." She willingly turned over a bit, hooked under and opened the door by herself. Aidan was all too willing to simply follow her.

That went on better than expected.

Outside the club the air was fresh and cool and she shuddered a bit. Aidan put an arm around her protectively. Her head sank onto his shoulder and he softly kissed her neck under the right ear, felt her twitch and she giggled softly. She seemed to feel comfortable with him. He kissed her again and she lifted her head a bit, presenting him the side of her throat.

Was she probably used to vampires on a regular base?

Was there any blood den here in Toronto? I should find that out, he thought for a second before he licked over the side of her neck, trailed down from her ear to her cleavage and up again.

Her scent was amazing, tempting. She moaned softly when it tickled a bit. His tongue was warm and soft and velvety and he leaked up and down. His lips split and his fangs dropped, his eyes slowly turned bled black. Aidan kissed her again before he pressed the tips of his fangs with soft pressure on her skin.

Only shortly before they would break through the delicate skin of her throat. His hand went down to her butt, his fingers felt for the tight line that led to her most sensitive point. His touch distracting her from what went on at her throat. Her pleasure would shade the moment he would bite down...

Isabel twitched and he felt her legs opening a bit, giving him better access when she leant into his embrace...

Aidan breathed deeply and put more pressure onto his fangs, inhaling her scent. She moaned again when his fingers pleasured her and he...

A hand grabbed his shoulder with raw force and he was brutally separated from Isabel. The next moment he was whirled against the moist wall of the club.

"WHAT...?" he cursed.

He was answered by a loud growl.

Aidan´s head was humming and he pushed off the wall with both arms, going for the one who had attacked him.

"What the hell is going on with you, Henry?" he cursed when he moved forward. Why did his son...? Disturb his feeding?

The light in the court yard was barely lighting the whole back space and the figure in front of him looked like...

...Henry.

A slightly younger Henry. The hair only a bit longer, a bit more curly caused by its length. Before he found time to wonder about what his eyes showed him, hands grabbed his shoulders again and pushed him against the garbage can with such force, that his shoulder seemed to crack under the collision.

"DARE YOU!" his attacker shouted at him and Aidan pushed himself forward, ramming his bent head into the chest of his opponent.

A deep groan, followed by a dark growl answered his counter attack and Aidan threw himself forward, his fist hit the side of the head, made his attacker stumble back and falling to the ground. With preternatural speed he was up onto his feet again and the next moment hands closed around Aidan´s throat, pushing him backwards again. Aidan closed his fingers around the other´s wrists, pulling with full force. He went forward, fangs bared, growling like a wolf. The grip around his throat broke when Aidan managed it to free his throat. He turned his hand, pulling the wrist with him and a scream answered his movement, when he felt the wrist dislocating.

"RUN! RUN ISABEL!" Aidan shouted at his woman who stared at both of them with eyes widened in fear. "RUN, Isabel. Get out of here!"

Within a moment the right hand of the other was out of action but his opponent seemed to be beside himself with rage. He jumped forward, fangs bared, eyes bled black. The left hand closed under his throat, pressing down onto his Adam´s apple and Aidan went short with breath. He growled when nails broke through the skin and for a split second he saw white fangs glistening only inches from his face.

Four fangs.

In the upper jaw.

Josh had four fangs in werewolf state. Two in the upper and two in the lower jaw.

Distracted for a moment Aidan lost his balance and the other vampire took advantage of it. A mere second later Aidan was lying on the ground, back down, the other one kneeling on his chest with one leg, the other leg on Aidan´s left arm. He seemed to have such strength that he was able to hold him down by this with only one hand to support him. Aidan tried to rise, to throw the other vampire off his chest but a left-handed hook hit his right temple with such force, Aidan went dizzy for a moment.

He fell back and stared at his opponent, breathing hard. The fact that he hadn´t fed since days in an attempt to avoid tainted blood, had weakened him contrary to his normal strength when he could feed regular.

Aidan tried to relax a bit so that he would be able to breathe better, releasing his chest from the weight of his attacker. The face of the other one hung directly over him and he hissed through his teeth;

"Wherefrom do you know my NAME?" His face distorted with rage. His breath streamed over Aidan´s face in short gasps. Obviously it had cost his opponent some effort to fight him down.

At least! Aidan thought with some satisfaction. He seemed not to be invincible when also in the moment he definitely was the stronger one. When he would catch his breath again he would be able to make use of a moment of surprise to get the upper hand again.

Only a moment.

His head was pressed down hard onto the wet asphalt. The grip of the other vampire was merciless and his head lowered a bit more, his voice rising when he repeated his question impatiently.

"From WHERE do you know me? Answer or I will smash your throat! Who are you that you dare to hunt in my territory?"

"Name..." Aidan choked under the grip. He coughed. "Name! I mistook you...for...some...one else..." he brought out with effort. His voice hoarse.

"You have mistaken me for someone else? Who?" he put force in his voice, his brows knitted and the pressure onto Aidan´s throat rose a bit for a moment, just to make sure who was the stronger one now.

"Must...not...tell...YOU!" Aidan choked and he tried to move but the grip was merciless and when he tried to move, it let a pain rise in his whole head. His temple pounded in the rhythm of his heartbeat.

"I could have killed you easily!" the vampire hissed into his face with disgust.

Aidan tried to watch over to the side, out of the corner of his eye. The place where he had left Isabel or more correct, where they were split by the attack.

Isabel was gone. Fortunately. Got herself out of here safely.

Fighting vampires.

Not the thing you wanna get involved with on an evening that had begun so nicely.

His evening wasn´t nice anymore. Not for Aidan.

"WHO. ARE. YOU?" the other one forced onto him, his grip growing harder for a second. Simply to give more weight to it.

"Wha..what is..that...terri...tory thing?" Aidan brought out with some effort when the grip gave in a bit so he was able to speak in a low voice.

"You crossed the border to Toronto without my permission! This city is mine! Whoever you are, vampire!" the other one hissed at him, his face a mask of anger.

"Where...I come..from...no...no territo...ry!" Aidan pressed out.

"I didn´t allow you to enter Toronto!"

"Strange...I...not...gotten...burn up!" Aidan replied, his half suppressed voice even able of dripping with some cynicism.

Aidan had some time to study his enemy more closely.

The facial features let him look like a slightly younger brother of his son. Curly hair framed a face that seemed to be not older then some twenty-two, twenty-three years. But this could be deceiving. Aidan himself was more than 260 years old and he looked like mid-twenties. Black eyes were hiding any natural color and Aidan wondered which it would be. The poor light was shading colors, even for him but what he got, his hair must have been light brown.

But the most astonishing fact was his set of doubled fangs in the upper jaw. Canines and the first and fourth incisor were impressively sharp and prolonged. Aidan had seen them drop, so he should be able to retract them too.

Definitely he was of another species of vampires, if one could call this different species, than him. Aidan had never before met any other _species _of vampires. But if there were turned and pure-bred werewolves, why not different types of vampires. Maybe he was pure-bred some way or another.

"You didn´t answer any of my questions! " the other reminded him in an angry voice.

"I don´t have to! I don´t care for your territory thing!" Aidan growled.

He choked and coughed when the pressure onto his throat rose again,

"You should care for!" it underlined his opinion about his uninvited intruder. "Last time! Who are you and where do you come from that you dare to walk my streets?"

"I´m from...Boston!" Aidan brought out half choked.

"WHO. ARE. YOU? Name! You should have one!"

"Won´t tell...yo..." The pain told Aidan that was the wrong answer.

What for? Maybe he should give in before this vampire would crunch his larynx, he thought.

"...kay..." Aidan choked. "I´m Aidan..."

"And more? Aidan who?"

"You won´t know me...I´m...sure..."

"That will show up itself! Who are you? The weight on his chest moved slightly.

"Aidan...Waite..." He fought for breath and when he could breathe again, he went on; "I´m coming from Boston...as...told you...I fled from a plague!...Just...wanna...be safe he..."

The other vampire jumped back, hissing, letting him go and stood some feet away from him suddenly when he heard the word plague. His face with a hint of fear.

Plague.

"You dare gonna spread a disease in here!" he shouted at Aidan.

"I don´t spread any disease! I´m...healthy! Aidan protested and tried to sit up. After a few moments he managed it to sit up with a groan. His head hurt like hell from the onslaught.

Aidan managed it to rise upon his feet again, shaken as he was. In annoyance he stared at the other vampire who now stood in some safe distance from him. As if he was afraid to catch some unknown disease.

Aidan felt not totally steady on his legs. But he moved forward now, determined to finish this now. No vampire-any-who simply handled him like crap. Territory! He walked forward, his face grim with determination. He got his fists ready either to attack or to defend himself when the other would start a new fight. His head was humming from hitting the ground and from the attempt to almost strangle him.

But he put this aside now.

"Who are you that you are gonna friggin acting like king anybody? I´m a free man and I can walk wherever I want! What is that crap with a territory, he?" He came nearer and the facial expression of the other vampire switched back to anger.

"YOU are the one crossing not only this, but every border by hunting in my own territory and then to have the arrogance to put my founded right into question! I should have killed you right away the first moment I had you down with your face in the mud!" the other vampire rose his fists and with preternatural speed landed a hard left handed hook that made Aidan stumble backwards. Aidan growled and threw himself onto his opponent, driving him backwards again.

Within a second Aidan had him on the ground and when he grabbed for the pale throat under his fingers, going into a strangle, anything hit him on the head from backwards and his lights went off. Aidan fell flat on his opponent who rolled him off to the right side, jumping up onto his feet again.

"Is it me again to save your royal butt, Henry? " a woman asked with some amusement in her voice.

"I would have had him ready a few moments later, if you would have left something over for me!" the vampire smirked at her.

Vicki looked down on the man who seemed to be unconscious.

"Who´s that man that you got trouble with him?"

"Getting trouble with him? More correctly; going into trouble with him! Vicki…I´m really…!" he began.

"Who is he? Normally you get people down without any problems, the only case…" Vicki began and crouched herself down beside Aidan, checking him for an ID as long as he wouldn´t wake up again.

"He´s a vampire! He came to Toronto without my definite permission or invitation! He´s nothing but an intruder, up to hunt in my territory!" Fitzroy´s voice was dripping from anger and contempt.

"Don´t ever tell that Mike! He´s sated from the last time some vampires were up to give you their regular visit. First Christina, and then in her footsteps; Alexander, her fledgling."

"You´re right Vicki! I had been too unaware over the last months. Things were going well for me and with my territory and I kept no special guard on it. It´s my fault!" Fitzroy confessed while he watched Vicki searching with professionalism through the pockets of the other vampire.

"He will get a real fine bruise. You´re having a strong left handed hook!" Vicki grinned when she watched a broad bruise developing where Fitzroy´s fist had hit Aidan´s temple.

"I have had some training, Vicki!"

"Especially since you walked along with me, Henry."

"With you along, my life became a bit more…adventurous and varied…"

"I got you away from your desk! That´s it. No more the calm life of a five-hundred year old graphic novel artist!" She grinned and opened the ID card.

"Hm…let´s see…who we got here…!

"Does his ID fit with what he has told me?" Fitzroy asked and bent over Vicki, taking over her Mag-lite. Because of her bad eyes she used a large sized lamp, which in case of an emergency, could be used as a weapon instead.

"Hm, he is a Waite, Aidan Waite from 3638 Mayford, Boston, Ma. His driver´s license, a credit card from a bank in Boston and…oh, what do we have here…? An ID-card from Boston Suffolk County hospital! Verifies him as a nurse! Henry…you nearly killed a poor nurse!" Vicki sounded accusingly.

"Nurse! Maybe he is, but foremost he is an intruding vampire. I will call Augustus! Maybe he knows of any Aidan Waite from Boston…"

"Okay, Henry…but maybe he´s simply any vampire, a newbie with no territory! Or think about Mick from L.A. They don´t live in separated territories. They have a community, a thing your royal brain would never accept, Henry!"

She watched Aidan intensely, searched for any signs of a reawakening consciousness but Henry´s left handed hook had sent him deep into the land of vampire dreams. Whatever dreams vampires may have, she thought; if this Aidan ever dreamed. She noticed that Henry had carefully wrapped his left hand around his right wrist.

"You gotten hurt?" she asked.

"He dislocated my wrist…" Fitzroy gnarled through clenched teeth and felt for the swelling wrist.

"Gimme your hand!" Vicki ordered and hesitantly he reached her his wrist. "Okay. Relax, Henry…!" Vicki felt for the injury, took a deep breath and concentrated herself onto the task. With one movement she pulled and turned at the same time and with a distinct snap the hand went back into the correct position while Henry answered her action with a barely suppressed scream.

"Na…"

"Thanks…!" he gasped and wiped his hand carefully.

"If we would have waited until we would reach Rajani, it would have become worse and more painful. Unless she would have shot you some morphine…" Vicki grinned.

"No. I really got enough morphine not all too long ago, Vicki. That will do for the next few centuries!" he brought up into the game the fact, that he had become very sick after Mike had shot him by accident and a damn witch had tried to kill him, taking advantage of his former condition.

"You should bandage it and take a good gulp of blood to heal…"

"Thanks for the recommendation, Dr. Nelson!"

Vicki smiled and slipped into a pair of surgical gloves like the police used them for investigations. She pulled up one of Aidan´s lids and saw a black pupil.

"Okay…vamped out as it looks. He has…" her left thumb and index finger pulled up his upper lip.

"Vicki!" Henry warned her. What if this Aidan came back to life out of a sudden.

"That won´t be the first time I would have been bitten by a vampire, Henry! Still forgot?" she reminded him of the fact that he had drunken from her more than once.

She went on with her examination.

"…kay. He has only two fangs. Definitely not your species and his eyes are bled black. So he´s none of the L.A. vamps…they get bright ones.

"Be careful, Vicki!" Fitzroy repeated when she went on without hesitation.

"Why? What´s up? You have sent him to Vampy Dreamland thoroughly!" she replied his concerned words.

"Be careful! It´s earnest, Victoria!"

The _Victoria _let her turn around her head to watch him closer. Because of the RP she couldn´t watch him out of the corner of her eye, made him getting her full attention now.

"Why?" she only asked.

"He told me something about a plague that is spreading in Boston, Vicki! Plague! That means pestilence!"

"I didn´t hear about any outbreak of pestilence in Boston. That isn´t so far and the Canadian Health administration would have taken care of it! Believe me! You know what went on here some twenty years ago, when in India they had an outbreak of the plague! They weren´t far from chasing all these poor India immigrants into an isolation area!"

Vicki felt for Aidan´s lymph node at his throat.

"As far as I can say it; not swollen, not hardened. His skin is rather cold, I think he hadn´t fed for some time…okay, he…oops, he is coming up again!" Vicki stood up and brought herself a few steps backwards into some safety distance.

A vampire, awakening and hungry, wasn´t kind of calculable.

When Aidan opened his eyes with a deep groan, his hand went for the backside of his head by reflex. He felt for his temple and when he brought his hand in front of his narrowing eyes, he sighed when he found them free of blood. Good luck no open wounds.

Fitzroy readied himself for another fight but obviously this Aidan was a bit too weakened for further actions.

Aidan sat up with a moan and stabilized himself with one arm. Carefully he pulled his legs under his body, kneeling and then rising up to finally standing in the dark courtyard.

"God! Who is this woman? Or please tell me there´s a cement mixer running! Outside my head!" he mumbled. His look turned over to the other vampire and the woman beside him, checking for a weapon that really could become dangerous for him like a stake or a sword.

But there was none, for the moment. A stake could simply be hidden under a jacket or coat.

Aidan liked to play rather carefully now when he stepped back in direction of the club. The woman stepped into his path.

"Stop!" she demanded, "So simply we won´t let you run! You got in a fight with my partner and…"

"You tried to split my head!" Aidan countered with a low growl.

"I had to come to his help! That´s what you also would do for your partner or friend!"

"My son…" Aidan brought in with a whisper.

Vicki looked at Henry, then turned back to Aidan.

"You´re having a son? How old are you?"

"Yes! I have had a son! And I have had a wife once. And now I have a son and to make sure, that you can´t think you´ll get me over so easily…YES! I´m not alone in _your _town! He´s with me! We came over here in the hope to find some shelter. This city of yours has two millions of inhabitants! Don´t you think that would be enough blood for a few of our kind? In Boston, where I came from, there had been dozens! Not only one or two!" Aidan had been gaining momentum now.

He was determined to stand his field.

This wasn´t the first time, and won´t be the last one, that he was confronted by any hostile vampire. He knew how to handle it.

Fitzroy stared at him, then he turned his head to Vicki, directing to Aidan with his still pounding finger; "He called me by my name! Wherefrom does he know?" Then he went face to face with Aidan despite the fact that his hand was still injured and would be a handicap in a new fight. But what for?

"Wherefrom do you know my name?" His voice insisting, his eyes bled black, fangs bared. His whole figure showing the royal blooded vampire prince he really was.

"What? Henry…? What does confuse you so much about it? I told you, I had mistaken you for Henry, my son, when you suddenly…disturbed my moment with the young lady!" Aidan spat at him and made a step forward, his tall body towering a bit above the other vampire.

This Henry seemed not to step back, obviously determined to stand his field too.

"So what is your name beside Henry?" Aidan demanded and his voice got back a touch of self-confidence. It was difficult to calculate the situation and this woman added to a slight feeling of uncertainty. Obviously she wasn´t his blood donor but some partner, despite the fact that she was human, definitely human. He could smell her mortal blood under the skin.

"Fitzroy. Henry Fitzroy! And this city belongs to me and I´m the one to decide whom I will tolerate and whom I won´t!" The eyes of Fitzroy bore into Aidan´s.

Aidan felt the urge to bring some calmness into the discussion. He won´t give in an inch but maybe there could be made some certain degree of equilibration among them. So far they won´t go right for the others heart with a stake.

He hadn´t come to Toronto for this city becoming a resting place for his ashes.

By the name being completed, Aidan´s mind tumbled over. There was something in the dark corner of his mind, from his young and mortal years. Something that was connected to the name Fitzroy. His face tensed when he tried to figure it out, Then the memory came back of something, a story, his father once had told him. About the royal family of the Tudors from mid sixteenth century; Henry VIII has had an illegitimate son, named after him; Henry, who must have died young and the royals used to accept a child born outside a marriage by giving him the prefix Fitz-. Fitzroy for a child of a royal. But this Henry Fitzroy had died under undefined circumstances.

Aidan looked at Fitzroy, allowing himself a short moment to study him. He never had seen any picture of an older Fitzroy. The only picture he knew from, was painted by Hohlbein- The older and showed a six year old child in an outfit of honor and value.

Fitzroy saw and felt the discrepancy in Aidan, his short hesitation. The face of the vampire was an open question. Then he seemed have to overcome it and asked;

"Henry Fitzroy. Are you the one Fitzroy who was born to Henry VIII…? What means…" Aidan didn´t know other than taking refuge to an expression that was not impressive but showed his helplessness, uncertainty for the other one. "…you would be way older than me…"

Fitzroy stared at him for a moment, his brows knitted, then a smile relaxed his tensed features.

"Yes. My father was Henry VIII. I wonder you know about the fact, which is rarely known by anybody and the less take even notice of it. My lifespan…the mortal one…had been rather short. I was turned at age 17."

Aidan nodded and to the surprise of Fitzroy he started to walk around slowly in the back yard, well aware that both, the vampire and the woman, were watching him on guard. Fitzroy and Vicki kept silent until Aidan finally stopped in front of them and he addressed himself to Fitzroy.

"Listen…okay…we can go on as before. It won´t be the first time I would have to fight…but we came over here for refuge…" How far could he go with explanations without giving himself a vulnerable side, into which Fitzroy would cut without mercy, taking advantage of a moment of weakness? When the face of Fitzroy stayed calm, showing no hostile attitude, he went on;

"…we are here because things over the last time went very wrong for me…and now Boston´s vampires are dying by a kind of…flu. That was the reason when I simply decided to take my son and to leave Boston for any other place where we would have a chance to simply survive. Not less and no more! I don´t want to be at war with anyone here. I´m not used to such things like a…territory. Where we came from, vampires had been living in a kind of community with a selected leadership… But everybody is dead or fled in an attempt to survive anywhere…"

Aidan took a breath and relaxed a bit, now, that the situation had come to some balance, away from pure physical fight.

Fitzroy kept silent for a moment that became longer and longer, giving Aidan the possibility to add to what he had said. Aidan went on, and if only to break the uncomfortable silence between them. He outstretched his hands, palms upwards as if to make clear that he was holding no weapons;

"We simply want to stay at a place where we can…so to say…catch our breath. If you are uhm…afraid for your territory…we won´t endanger your safety, your secrecy…if it is this…what you´re afraid of! I and my son…we don´t kill when we feed. No corpses. No police involvement. Boston had been a hidden…society." Aidan tried to beg for good.

"Why for example, don´t you simply stay outside in the woods, feeding on animals you gonna catch?" Fitzroy´s voice had gotten a sharp touch. The imagination of two vampires hunting, feeding in his area must have led to it. His eyes pending to turn pitch black again.

Fitzroy felt his fangs itching to fall again which he had retracted only a few moments ago.

Aidan´s mind cringed at the imagination of him and Henry running through the woods, hunting down animals of all kind like Josh did, when he had turned werewolf on full moon.

"We…I beg your pardon…we are not used to hunt down poor animals like a werewolf! " Maybe this blood would be clean at least, he thought but didn´t mention it. Fitzroy looked as if he was in panic that they themselves could spread this fatal flu in his hunting ground.

"We don´t want much and don´t need much. I have starved long enough to learn how to keep control while feeding!" Not necessary to mention that he had starved for 15 month recently.

Aidan kept silent now, looking at Fitzroy and the woman who obviously was his partner or anything equal. Maybe his mortal love. Maybe she was both of it.

Vicki kept silent too. This was Henry´s task to cope with the situation. It was his territory and his city. Mike would be very amused, she thought bitterly, when he learned to know, and if only by accident, that Toronto again had become a meeting point for homeless vampires. Not to talk about health aspects. She shot him a look from the side to what he she had to turn her face to him. A fact, that won´t escape Aidan. He would know directly that something was wrong with her eyes. Human beings didn´t turn their whole face to watch out of the corner of an eye…

The situation was uncertain and this seemed to be the wrong moment to show any slightest weakness in front of an unknown vampire.

"Okay." Fitzroy took up the word. "You can stay for two days and nights in Toronto. If you need to feed keep north of St. Claire and west of Dufferin Street! Would I meet you outside the designated area you would regret it like nothing before in your life!" Fitzroy warned him. His voice putting force into it, simply to make sure he won´t hesitate to let become his warning the truth.

"Vicki!" he directed to her, indicating her to step out of the way.

Vicki stepped beside.

Aidan sighed, now that the way back to the club was no longer blocked.

"Thank you, Fitzroy…only…"

"What else?"

"Our hotel is lying…within the area you restricted as your own…so…what´s about?" Aidan tried.

"You can stay there in the name of God! But don´t ever dare to touch anyone, the less to feed from! I won´t hesitate to kill you! Did you understand this?!"

"I have well understood…we will accept the rules! I don´t want to be at war with you, Fitzroy!"

"That means that you will have left after these two days! Would I get you in Toronto after this time, I´ll kill you too, Aidan Waite!" Fitzroy closed.

"Okay." Aidan bent shortly in a gesture out of the past, nodded and turned around to leave the back yard without haste but fast enough to get as much space as possible between him and Henry Fitzroy.

Vicki and Henry looked after him, when he disappeared in the club.

**A cheap hotel at** **Baldwin Street **

The light was dimmed down to a minimum when Aidan entered the simple hotel room he had hired for him and Henry.

Henry was lying on the bed, his eyes closed and he barely opened his eyes when Aidan appeared beside him.

"I have news for you, Henry! We aren´t all alone here in Toronto, the less free to go where we wish. Henry?"

Aidan looked down at his son who barely reacted to it.

"Henry…what´s going on? Do you…"

"I…I don´t feel…well…" Henry mumbled.

"Are you hungry? Didn´t you feed?"

"I fed from the bag in the fridge…but…" he stroked over his arms and his face tensed slightly. "I´m kinda hurting all over…"

"That´s the hunger. You starved way too long!" Aidan tried to calm himself, tried not to raise the horrifying suspect it suggested. He reminded the moment he had met Henry in the alley when he had shouted at him; I´m starving! He had been so desperate...

Like him.

"No, I know the feeling of starving. It´s anything else…!" Henry mumbled, his lids half closed when he turned his head to Aidan, who bent down to him, his heartbeat speeding up. He felt for the skin at Henry´s throat. It was cool. Aidan had seen his son in a fever when Josh and Atlee had set him free from the hook in the cellar of Mother´s lair. Cool skin; no fever. No fever; no infection.

"Dunno…only…I have fed an hour ago. From the fridge…not outside…" Henry added. He felt somewhat tired and the hunger had gone, but he felt slightly uncomfortable. It wasn´t a tingling and piercing like from hunger but anything more like his nerves in his skin were hyper-sensitive when he touched his skin.

"You…you have any pain?" Aidan asked, his voice more than full of concern. He tried to hide it but when Henry was not totally sleepy he won´t miss it. "…in the muscles? Pulling, hurt like from exhaustion?" Aidan checked the symptoms of a beginning flu as a human would feel them. He didn´t dare to think about the consequences now, tried to say to himself that Henry hadn´t fed for a while and that he maybe was simply exhausted, tired from the events before.

"No pain, no pulling…only the skin hurts slightly when I wipe over it and the blood didn´t warm me up as usual…maybe you are right and I should simply rest a bit, should try to sleep and tomorrow it´ll be better…" Henry tried to calm and assure himself. He wrapped the blanket around him more tightly and closed his eyes.

A long moment Aidan looked down at his son, uncertain what he should do.

Fitzroy had given them two days and nights to disappear from his territory. To decide where they would and could seek shelter anywhere else but here. Sure, he hadn´t known anything about a territory´s owner and a 477 years old vampire...that went near to the Family´s leaders.

Vicki looked at Henry with knitted brows. His face was stern and he was standing in the dim light, his fists grounded into his hips. His view was fixed onto the back yard door through which this Aidan had disappeared.

"Henry…what do you suppose to do now? Mike would be going for your throat, or more correctly, for your heart when he learns to know that you´re hiding the fact that other vampires are hanging out in Toronto!"

"They will leave within two days or nights. Mike won´t get any trouble with them! I´m not in telling him. You pretty well remind what was going on when I mixed him up for help with Christina and this poor dude Alexander! He won´t go with it! Like he didn´t last time, Vicki…."

"But do you…" Vicki directed into the direction into which Aidan left; "…believe this guy? You should know better, Henry! Why are you willing to believe him, that neither he nor his son would cover Toronto with corpses within 48 hours!? Do you simply close your eyes to the fact, in hope it won´t happen? Henry! You don´t even know him by name. You said that you would have to call Augustus for information! That means, these guys appeared out of nowhere, like a meteor from the sun!"

Vicki couldn´t understand why Henry was so ignorant to the fact, that they were shortly before new trouble getting smashed right into his royal bastard face. Tried he to ignore it, just in case to be left in peace?

"Don´t ask me, Vicki! I don´t want to have Mike involved again. You know his reaction!"

"Yeap! I know his temper and his resentments against all…others…of your kind and it is…" Vicki began in a warning tone. But Henry didn´t let her close, stepped right into her path with a harsh voice, what dripped from bitterness.

"Not only against others, Vicki! Have you forgotten what Mike had initiated against me, when Christina…"

"Are you gonna count up now against each other, Henry? That´s really the right moment, just if you didn´t mention it!" Vicki countered and stared into his slightly blackening eyes that sparkled with barely hidden anger.

"I didn´t mean that I would trust them. I can only hope he will stay with this deal. Otherwise I´m gonna care for it by myself!" Henry stated. "As I have ever done since the time I had been turned!" he added.

With this, the case seemed to be finished for Henry. By now. Vicki could read it in his facial expression.

"Only to verify it again, Henry…"

"What else?" he sounded pissed.

"I´m at your side Henry! I stay with you. If you would be getting into trouble, I will help you.

"I know." He closed shortly. Henry turned over and stepped forward, waved Vicki to follow him.

"We can leave now! We have another case to solve, Vicki." His smile was short and barely visible. Vicki could understand how much the new situation was gnawing at his mind and most of all, at his temper.

Henry was, as usually when it came to preternatural cases and Mike, balancing on the blade. She put all her hope into it that this Aidan and his progeny would keep their word, causing no trouble. Vicki felt some…attraction was, as long it didn´t come for Henry, a word on the edge…for vampires. Mick was a nice guy like his companions. There were dangerous ones out there. But she was reluctant in killing vampires if not absolutely necessary to protect herself or Henry or one of her friends…

Then Vicki would be the fiercest opponent one could get.

tbc


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

**Toronto Downtown – next evening**

Aidan woke up with a start. For a few seconds he had been back in the narrow box six feet under. He gasped and sat up abruptly. It took him some intakes of breath before he felt his heartbeat calming down to normal speed. He stared into the dark room and it was calming him down when he saw that he was in a small hotel room in Downtown Toronto. When he had collected himself, he turned his head and watched over to the slim figure on the bed beside him. A long moment Aidan listened to the breath of his son. His muscular chest was heaving up and down with his breath and his lids were closed.

Aidan sank back again. Gave himself over to the comfort of the moment, the silence around them and he heard decent noises from far. Some traffic in a nearby street, a human voice whispering some rooms away and the sounds of a soft wind around the building.

It was so peaceful.

After a while Aidan rose from his bed, stepped into the simple and small bathroom to take a short shower. He enjoyed the comfort of the running water, washing away the dust and the sweat from the night. His mind went back to the time he had been grounded. How much plans he had made for the time he would be free again. How he would take revenge on Mother for what she had done to them and especially to him and Henry.

He dried himself with a towel and walked back into the bedroom.

Henry meanwhile had turned over, his arm hanging down the bedside, the other hand clinging to the blankets that were wrinkled and tousled, hanging halfway down to the ground. His legs were pulled up in abnormal angles.

"Henry! Henry…what´s going on? Hm? Your bed is a mess, you are a mess! You screamed! Bad dreams?" Aidan looked at Henry who won back controls only slowly.

His eyes finally fixed Aidan´s and he whispered something, barely audible.

Aidan meant not to trust his ears.

"What? What do you say? Don´t…I mean, you´re not gonna tell me that…" he stuttered. His eyes were going black out of anger in a reflex. "Don´t ever dare tell me!" he growled low under his breath. He grabbed for Henry´s arm and his son moaned and pulled his hand out of his grip in a rather raw movement.

"That hurts! Le´me be!"

"What? That? Hurts? You have hurt in your sleep?" Aidan brought out and looked down at Henry´s arm, suspecting that his son had tossed around so wildly that he has hurt his arm. But there was no bruise visible.

Henry stared at him like he was drunk from wine.

"Henry?"

Aidan shook him to bring him to his minds again. Henry moaned and twitched and Aidan carefully let him sink back on the bed. He looked down onto his son.

"Henry, what did you do? You are drunk from blood or what?"

"Dunno…dunno…all…hurts…" Henry mumbled.

"What hurts? Tell me Henry!"

"All…all over…I´m cold…hurts an…I´m freezin´ cold…dunno! Help me…Aidan!" he gasped and stared helplessly at Aidan, pulling the blankets upwards, wrapping himself in a mess of blankets and rumpled sheets, pulling his legs up and cowering in the bed in a fetus posture. Aidan felt for his temple.

Henry was shivering.

Aidan grabbed for the blankets and pulled them back in a moment, despite Henry´s protest. Before Henry could react, Aidan pulled him over, stripped the shirt down and hectically began to search for the traces of the flu he had seen on Atlee.

"What...WTF are you...doing?" Henry choked in protest.

"Shut up! What did you do? Where the hell did you drink? What bitch was your meal on legs? You´re mad, Henry! Who had said to stay away from these friggin infected assholes? WHO?" Aidan cursed while he roughly turned Henry over and checked his back. Finally he let him go.

Aidan straightened himself again, threw the blankets over his son and stepped back from the bed. He started to walk around in the small room, his hand pressed over his mouth to keep himself away from gasping. In between he looked over to Henry, turned away and finally fumbled for his cell.

Henry stared at him angrily and overly tired the same time.

"From whom did you feed?" Aidan growled at him while he dialed Josh´s number. Impatiently he waited for the answer. "Who was it? HENRY!?"

"I...I was...STARVING!...I...I thought...her...to be safe. She said..." Henry gasped; "She said...she would be healthy, free...from disease..."

"Idiot! Maybe she was free from any shit. Free from AIDS...but not from that friggin flu!" Aidan cursed.

"What about flu?" a voice interrupted him when Josh answered the call.

"Hi, Josh! We got a freakin problem!"

"What problem?" Josh knitted his brows. Aidan´s voice sounded hectically and he could hear him breathe into the cell. "Calm down, buddy! Where are you anyway? Are you okay?"

"No! I won´t. Toronto. No! Friggin NO!"

Josh tried to put every answer to each of his questions. That sounded bad anyway, he thought. Okay. I should try to be more definite. Before he could think about a better way of questioning, Aidan went in medias res.

"Not me but Henry got a fucking problem!"

"Aidan, if there´s a problem, we can think about! There will be a solution. Always..." Josh sighed and heard a moaning from the background of wherever where was. In the moment at least.

"There won´t be a solution, I´m afraid!" Aidan choked. "Only death..."

The last word came out with a heaviness that showed Josh how serious the problem was.

"What happened, Aidan? Tell me and I will think about how to help you...Did you get trouble with other vampires? And where are you?"

"You could only help us if you were...we need any friggin genetic engineer, anything like that! And we are in Toronto. And yes we are in trouble with other...another vampire!" Aidan pressed out so fast that Josh barely could follow him.

"Stop! Stop, Aidan! Please...explain me. One thing after another. I have only a mortal brain, not that fast sweetbread of you guys!" Josh tried to slow him down. "So you are in Toronto. Okay. And naturally you got trouble with another of your kind! What..."

"He even isn´t another of our kind. Call him any other...species!" Aidan brought out impatiently.

"He´s another type of..."

"Is he a vampire or what is it? Aidan, I had been a werewolf, we lived with a ghost and I nearly tainted my immortal soul to get Sally and you back! But I´m none of the Ghostbusters! If you gonna need any paranormal researcher, you should use any guy in the job..."

In what between heaven and hell had Aidan messed himself up this time? His vampire friend was a real genius in putting himself into trouble.

"I have met him. He mixed up with me when I tried to get to some food! Stepping in like the goddam king of Egypt! He claims this whole city his property! What ever...we will have to leave within two days or nights, otherwise...And Henry is gonna dying!"

"What? Henry is...he dies? What the shit happened?"

"I don´t kow how long he will be...alive. From now. He...he...caught...this idiot of my son...he caught the flu! Josh...I..." Aidan´s voice broke and he choked hard on tears that threatened to break free.

"What?" Josh couldn´t believe what he had heard. Henry! This guy who had hold a woman kinda captive for clean blood. He had called himself a survivor and now? Fate? Punishment? God, he had been punished enough. He had paid with his skin for a re-connection with his maker, for his return into the family that by now nearly died out. Henry had still survived...

"Aidan! He needs...any clean blood! Enough clean blood would heal him if..."

"No! Atlee...he drank clean blood, even mine in an attempt to heal himself from his flu infection. Even my blood couldn´t do! He died right beside me! Vampire and human blood wouldn´t do!" Aidan pressed out.

"What about vaccination? If he would get blood from anybody who had been vaccinated. This blood would contain antibodies which neutralizes the virus! That´s why vaccination works on human beings!" Josh began.

There had to be any option.

"And how shall I get to any vaccinated blood? Standing in the streets, asking for it? Are you vaccinated against flu? Then I need your blood!" Aidan spat out, his voice dripping with cynicism.

Josh could hear how desperate he was. The thought or call it the fact, that he was going to lose Henry made his throat close with a knot.

"You must search for a doc, Aidan. Maybe he can help Henry..." Josh began.

"Can´t go to a doctor! What do you think, Josh?"

"As long as he doesn´t bare his fangs in front of him...What´s the matter with you, Aidan? You never had been that reluctant when it came to...weird solutions. I´m not gonna remind you by now!" Josh answered angrily.

"He´s gonna need any friggin blood that will heal him! Nothing else! It has ever been blood that heals us!" Aidan shouted into his cell and Henry moaned when the level threatened to torture his sensitive hearing.

Aidan turned his head and watched over to Henry who stared at him angrily. Aidan decided to ignore it. He was simply pissed off. His son was in trouble- as usual.

Josh pushed the phone away from his ear in a reflex.

"You won´t have to shout my ear out, Aidan!" he shot back, rubbing his earlobe that seemed to tingle. "Okay, I´ll think it over. I have to do some research, then I´ll call you back, Aidan..."

"There won´t be any result, Josh! We are vampires! They don´t do any studies about us, the less medical research! Forget about, Josh!"

Aidan stared at his cell as if this innocent tool was responsible for the crap they were in.

"If you want to resign, Aidan! You´re free to do it! I won´t! I´ll call you back soon! In between stay away from any friggin nonsense! I don´t wanna brush you up with a dust pan!"

It clicked and the connection broke when Josh hung up.

"Damn! Looks like it sticks to me to save your ass, Henry! As usual!" he cursed after a look at his son who had wrapped the blankets around him tightly, his face tensed and his teeth clenched. His legs were pulled up to his body and he seemed to shiver from cold.

Aidan shoved his cell into the pocket of his jeans, got fully dressed within a few moments and shortly turned over to his son.

"Stay where you are, Henry! You keep in here! Don´t ever dare to stroll damn Toronto! I´ll see to get you some...dunno what to call it...some cure, if there´s any." He ordered at him. Henry didn´t look like he was going to do much for the next time. And Aidan did not dare to think over how much was left over to find some cure for his son. Josh mentioning this antibodies theory had shot an idea into his mind. Clean human blood didn´t work, the same with clean vampire blood of the own kind.

But what about...

this other vampire?

This Fitzroy was obviously a vampire of some other species! He had seen four fangs on him and Fitzroy was territorial what was unusual. Because he had met him at nighttime, Aidan couldn´t differ if this Fitzroy was able to walk by day or if he had to keep himself in between sunset and sunrise. This guy would have been mad to tell him, offering any weakness in front of an intruder into his territory as he called this city! Fitzroy had been rather hostile, setting a tight time schedule to some refugees.

Damn it! This city was by way large enough with its two millions of inhabitants to share some blood! But maybe this Fitzroy was a refugee himself, was hiding from others of his kind.

If he was of another species, maybe his blood would help, Aidan thought. He didn´t tell his idea to Henry. His son was of no use now. He, Aidan, had to search whole Toronto for Fitzroy.

Any which way! He had to get to him and to his blood!

"I´m off for some outdoor activities, Henry. Don´t know how much time it´ll take!" Aidan explained and smiled slightly.

"Be...careful, my friend..." Henry weakly replied.

"I will be but don´t tell me what I have to do! Looks like you gonna need some sleep to regain some strength, Henry!" Aidan nodded, closed his leather jacket and left the room, switching off the main light under the ceiling.

The door fell shut with a soft thud.

Outside the hotel it was dark now and thin rain was falling, turning the sideways in a glistening surface under the lamp posts. Obviously energy saving was no concept in Toronto. The streets were brightly lit and Aidan walked north. He had no definite destination to walk to. It won´t be of much use to walk streets up and down, but maybe Fitzroy preferred any club like the one in which he had met him, he thought. For the moment the simple walking helped him to clear up his mind.

If Fitzroy would go to the same club this night? And where was his lair, his hiding place? Vampires at least needed a safe place to stay over the hours they weren´t active. Who was this woman he called Vicki? His regular blood donor or his girlfriend, his love? Or maybe any partner? It didn´t look like she was a vampire herself. Otherwise he would have smelled it on her as he had smelled it on Fitzroy the very moment this guy had stepped into his path.

**Toronto Metropolitan Police**

Detective Celluci looked up from his computer file when the door to his office opened and a slim woman with a dark blonde ponytail and gray-green eyes entered. The glass door fell shut behind her and she sat down without waiting for an invitation to do so. Obviously she felt at home in here.

Celluci greeted her with a short "Hi, Vic!" Then he bent down to his file again, pretending to be very busy. He had half a dozen cases on the desk to be solved fast before his boss Staff Chief Inspector Crowley would step in, either with more files, or what seemed to be more realistic, the next attempt to wash his head because he had no solutions at hand.

He confirmed this by his next words.

"I´m busy, Vicki! I have a whole bunch of unsolved cases on the table! And Crowley..."

"I know, she´s gonna kick your ass. As usual, Mike. But I have..." Vicki opened a paper bag and sat a box of Chinese noodles on the desk, right in front of Mike.

A strong smell of spice and a promise of a delicious meal went up his nostrils but Mike was somewhat wary.

What did Vicki want from him that she came in with a meal? Usually she was holding something in mind when offering a meal. He knew her way better than she maybe thought. Vicki never did anything without a background.

"What do you have in mind, Vic, with coming in with a peace offer?"

"Nothing, Mike! I simply thought you could have some hunger, working all day and half the night long..." Vicki directed to the bundle of files on Mike´s desk. She shrugged her shoulders with an innocent smile.

"Oh come on, Vicki! Don´t try your tricks on me!" He replied the sentence he had once heard from Vicki in the presence of the royal bastard. "You know you´re a pretty bad liar! You have ever been!" Mike stated and looked at her like she was a suspect. The view out of his ice blue eyes could become a stare, intense enough to melt down even the most unruly guys.

Mike didn´t intent to make use of it by now, but he was in no mood to get involved into one of her strange cases again. This had happened too often over the last time. At least since Fitzroy has had his coming-out as a vampire! This royal bastard had mixed up his mind, going a mess with his sight of the world as he knew it.

Vampires before had been a product of human fantasy and that of some writers, what had been pretty comfortable. Some shudder watching old movies or reading more or less well written novels. As a kid he had devoured Stoker and others of his kind, going freaking frightened by the novels. His father had lost his collective shit when he caught him with the books. But his father had been some drunken dude...

Forget it!

His bad times had been over since years, fortunately.

"Uhm, Mike, you look like you´re somewhat distracted! What´s up?" Vicki began when she bent deeper to him, her hands spread onto the desk. Her nose was hovering only some two inches away from Mike´s.

He couldn´t hide a smile finally.

"So, what´s up Vicki? You won´t come in with food if you don´t want anything from good old cop Mike! Spit it out!"

Vicki smiled at him.

"Why do you ever be that mistrusting? Could there be no other reason that I thought at you Mike and decided to care for you once a time?" Her head moved up a bit and Mike let out a breath, leaned back into his seat, folded his hands behind his neck and grinned at her.

"I´m not mistrusting, Vicki! I could be mistrusting to some certain degree when it comes to vampires, but not with you. At least I hope so!"

Vicki´s brows knitted at his words. Had Mike probably heard anything about the fact that Henry now had to deal with two foreign vampires in his city? Henry could be very protective with his blood donors and two additional vampires would be two additional boarders. Two boarders who were gonna dispute his entitlement for blood. And the worst thing was; they simply had entered his area without his special invitation. They were only tolerated, nothing more. And within two days the problem would have solved by itself.

Therefore Henry would take care! No reason to tell Mike about. He had shit enough on his heels.

At the moment Henry was out for a snack. Anywhere in Downtown, in any club. Yesterday the observation was finished fast when she had gotten the photos she needed to testify the cheating wife. A simple job. Fast done, fast money. Finally. Those usual observations weren´t the thing to let her become rich but they helped to pay the monthly rent to her landlord.

Henry had offered her to move in more than once but she was rather reluctant about it. That won´t go well! A half blind private investigator and ex-cop and an immortal vampire! They had this discussion more than once and Vicki had always denied it. Moving in would have solved her financial uncertainties in some way, at least it would have spared her the rent. Not that Vicki was this kind of women, who would take advantage of it. By no way. But the rent for the rooms and her office were a regular factor to count upon instead of her rather irregular income from her job.

Mike was right!

If she would have stayed in the police service instead of chucking her job because of her deteriorating eyesight, she would at least have a regular salary, also when it won´t have been on the level like before in the active investigative service on the homicide department.

But Vicki could not cope with the pity of her colleagues. And she did not want to. No weaknesses to be shown in the presence of anybody, even not her mother! Every question from her side about her eye disease Vicki warded off with a "No matter, mom. It´s steady. Nothing to be afraid of!" Vicki could cope with almost everything, irrespective how strange, how weird it was but when it came to herself, her emotions, her comfort, she locked up totally.

Even Henry was not able to break some of her inner walls, the hard he ever tried. She wondered herself that he hadn´t lost patience long ago. Maybe due to the fact that he was centuries old and has had enough time to learn patience with mortals. Another fact was that he had hopelessly fallen in love with her. And Vicki restricted herself into giving herself over to him totally.

She secretly felt the same for Henry, but forbade herself to let go. Always with the thought in mind that, if she would give in to him, this would run well only for as long as she won´t be blind finally, and then he would simply retract from her. Why should a vampire, a being immortal and resistant to sickness and death, mess around with a blind and semi helpless woman when he had free access to every other woman he ever wanted?

"Vicki? Still here?" Mike suddenly asked her and woke her up from her trailing thoughts, his hand waving in front of her face.

"What? Uuh...nothing. I only thought about the last case we have solved." she tried to excuse herself. Her eyes fixed his. She smiled but Mike was suspicious.

Mike took a pair of sticks from the bag and grabbed the noodle box, started to eat before they would become cold. Cold and greasy Chinese food did not stand on his top-ten-list of food options. Also half warm not too!

Half warm!

The royal bastard´s food was half warm always. Body temperature! Mike shuddered at the thought of it. He had seen Fitzroy warming up a cup of blood in his microwave. For sure a case of bad supplement. Normally the bastard preferred his food from a living source, mixing the act of drinking with a more than intimate act.

Blood and sex.

That was what vampires were meant to prefer over all.

Mike gulped hard and Vicki looked at him.

"Anything wrong with the noodles?" while she was eating from her own box too.

"No...no, all okay with it, I only swallowed too fast..." Mike grinned and pushed the next load into his mouth by this avoiding to give her more than a short answer. When he had finished his meal, he felt fit enough to go on with his way of interrogation.

He was convinced that Vicki was hiding something from him. Since they had split up jobs and Vicki had left the TMP she had developed her own kind of activities. More and more she had slipped deeper into the paranormal. And Fitzroy was the initiator of it. Won´t it have been for Fitzroy, Vicki would have a normal PI job; cheating husbands and wives, financial betrayal, data theft...God, one of these _normal cases_ almost had cost her life when she came way too near to international drug dealers...

Mike always had tried to convince Vicki that he could put in his good reputation in the TMP to make her getting her job back, also when it would be a desk-job. Despite the fact that she had left he still felt some responsibility for the partner and woman he once had worked together with over such a long time. They had begun in the simple field work when he and Vicki had left the Police Academy. By the time they were upgraded, finally up to Detectives in the homicide department, and damn, they had been the most successful partners in the TMP homicide.

Even if Crowley kinda hated them for their success.

"What about Fitzroy? Is he well?" he suddenly asked her in an attempt to get her by surprise but she was even with him in investigation skills. Sometimes he tended to forget, not to his benefit.

"Since when are you so interested in Henry´s well-being? Seems to be a new side on you! What happened?" Vicki lifted herself from her seat and standing up, she stared right into Mike´s eyes. He even didn´t try to hide it. Vicki switched to an innocent answer.

"He´s all well, Mike! We closed our case and he sometimes helps me with it. As usual!"

"Is he out for food?"

"Obviously! He isn´t to report me! And before you´re gonna on with questioning; No, he did not feed on me over the last time! And no, we didn´t have sex if it is what you´re the most interested in, Mike! And if! That´s none of your business, Mike! Since we are not married!"

Mike stared at her, bit his lower lip and she saw how his teeth clenched in annoyance. Lost game, Mike! No way! Score one-zero. For me.

"Okay, Mike. What is the reason you are asking me?"

"I´m only interested in you because we once worked together and your job looks like it is not that running well as anyone would prefer, Vic."

"You can try until the world ends, Mike! I won´t come back into the forces! And I´m not living on Henry´s money. I can care for myself!" she sounded really pissed off now and Mike knew, that, if he would go on, they would end up in one of their usual verbal fights; loud enough that everybody in the building could participate without problems.

As in the past. When their fights had been legendary.

"That you have proved true enough, Vic!" Mike stated angrily. He finished his meal and crunched the empty, innocent box into his bucket below the desk. Satisfaction at least, even when it came to a supplement for anybody´s head he would have like to crunch now!

When his head with the blonde hair and the sky blue eyes came up again, Mike looked at her.

"I don´t know what you´re up to, Mike…with Henry!" she hissed when she felt that Mike was going to ride the horse over the edge.

Mike swallowed hard, his blue eyes went on blaze. Vicki was infuriating today. He was sure that there was some reason for it that she reacted like that; being over-protectively tonight when it came to Henry. There had to be anything in the pipe, he only didn´t know what it was.

But his instinct let him sniff trouble.

Fitzroy…and vampires in general only meant trouble.

Even a baby-vampire like Fitzroy couldn´t change this. A baby-vampire hunting for a baby-rabbit, he thought angrily. And he could not keep himself from bringing it to the top now by;

"Tell him…if there will be any vampire lore trouble, I´m gonna stake him!" Mike growled.

"If you do this, I´ll shoot you right away. And this time it won´t be an accident, Mike!" Vicki shot back and she turned onto her heels and the door fell shut with a loud thus this once.

Henry Fitzroy was standing in a narrow alley between two large buildings. In here the noise level was reduced against the street and he dialed the number of Augustus. He didn´t need a phone book for it. The number had itself burned into his mind since phone was available from the beginning of the last century. Good old friend. He smiled. For the first time at this evening.

After a while Augustus answered the call.

"Henry…old friend! How are you? It´s so nice you´re calling in again after a long time…"

"Hello Augustus. I have to confess, I had been very busy over the last time, so I let slip some things unfortunately…I´m fine so far and maybe you like to come over here again. There´s always a bed available for you…!" Henry began. He didn´t want to break in with hornets and trumpets first. But Augustus could hear from his voice that Henry wasn´t in for a simple small talk about common stuff. So it was him who went on.

"Henry, I´m hearing some concern behind your voice…tell me please, what´s up?"

"Well, now that you have started, I won´t have to begin by myself." Henry mumbled.

"That sounds somewhat seriously, Henry!" The sonorous voice of the elder man gave some comfort now to his angry mood. Augustus was a man he could always trust with. In every matter that was coming up in a vampire´s life.

"Okay, Henry…what is it I can help you with?"

"I have detected an uninvited guest in Toronto. To tell the truth they are two. Two vampires, I don´t know. I caught up with one of them in the back yard of a club yesterday. Finally I got a name from him…"

"You put some pressure onto him, I guess."

"Yeap! Call it this way. We had a little fight and he finally told me that his name is Waite, Aidan Waite. He pretended to come up from Boston, Massachusetts. Together with…as he called it…his son or progeny Henry. I have never heard of them. Do you have any information about an Aidan Waite, Augustus?"

"Uhm…not so easy. Boston is no common territory…No…single owner, like with Toronto, Montreal or New York or Chicago. The lower East-coast, down from the New England states is not split in single territories…There´s a whole bunch of vampires living there, down to South Carolina. They have another community structure, Henry…"

"Such a thing as my friend Mick lives in, over there in L.A. ?"

"Almost. They have a leader…as far as I know a woman called Mother. She has had a progeny, Suren was her name…"

"Was?"

"I think she died, no matter how. But they are kinda royals, leading the area together with some elders who are gonna hiding among any Amish. I never understood how these people could come up with hiding them among their communities. But that´s another theme. Finally…" Augustus sighed and waited for Henry to go on.

"So they are…to some certain degree…totally organized another way…Did you ever hear of this Aidan?"

"Hm, he had been one of their leaders for some time until this Mother, their…queen…came back, but when he´s over here by now, I think he is out of the royal row yet...Maybe he is a kind of a political refugee."

"Hm, I told him to leave with his son within two nights, otherwise…You know me, Augustus!" Henry explained.

"Of course, Henry! But I also know you as someone who don´t like…war for territories!"

"Right, not if not necessary…I well remember the last time when unhappy Alexander spread his quarrels over to my city!"

"Uhm, maybe you should be waiting, Henry…no fast decisions! When your…guests, what they aren´t really beside, but what for…will leave within short time, you shouldn´t worry before things start burning. Be patient, old friend! I know your rules and the contract you signed up, but maybe these two won´t develop to be enemies if they are simply refugees of what reason so ever!"

"But my patience is not infinitely, Augustus! I´m too old and I´m really not interested that two marauders are challenging me for my area!" Henry´s voice was angrily, but Augustus could understand him. Too often in his long existence his old friend had to fight for his territory, losing friends and beloved ones when an intruder was posing a challenge of life or death.

"Henry! Be patient and wait for them to leave. When they are refugees from a community they won´t want your territory, I think. Maybe only some rest and peace and a possibility to collect their strength…" Augustus tried to calm down his mood, his voice soft and low.

"Collect their strength! Collect their strength for an assault or what, Augustus? Thriving on my blood…the blood that is mine since I signed up for Toronto! Feeding on my donors, I´m caring for! I have to protect them as well as my area. So, please Augustus, I don´t want to annoy you…but I´ll have an eye on it and if there will be any trouble rising, I won´t stop myself from fighting for what is mine, with all hardness!" Henry stated and took in a deep breath to regain some calmness.

"Henry!"

Augustus had a bad feeling about it. He knew Henry over such a long time, since his father had been a young man, taking over the business from his grandfather. Keeping the things in a row for vampires and preternatural beings since generations, accepted by both sides, his family had split the country among the vampires and werewolves for good, even being mediators in case of any upcoming struggle among them. Just to keep the peace and the secrecy, unnoticed by the mortals. His family had all needed connections to mortals, who were willing to accept the presence of these beings among the human, as long as a steady state was kept and peaceful but secret existence was possible.

His father had introduced him to Henry when he had been a child of ten years. Early, but his father kept a special friendship to Henry and so he dared to do such a step, in the knowledge that Henry would never do any harm to his son.

"Henry, please don´t make any mistakes…You are having my back, if there will be any trouble…but you came along with Mick St. John and his friend…"

"They had been invited, by me, or the last time, by somebody I trust with my life to! That´s the difference…" Vicki had called for help when a mad woman from his past had kidnapped him and tried to kill him brutally…

Vicki…she meant so much to him, more than any other women from his long existence.

"Okay, there´s one day and one night left: Steady state. But after that there will be no mercy. Okay, Augustus. I have to thank you for your help…"

Augustus smiled with relief, what Henry couldn´t see.

"Call in soon, Henry, even when it´s only for some talk. If there´s trouble, you know where to reach me any time…!"

"Thank you so much, Augustus. I´m going to call soon…Good night…"

"You´re welcome, Henry. Good night…"

Henry switched off his cell and he gave himself a moment to recollect, before he left the slim alley to walk down the street, where young people were waiting for entrance in clubs.

**Downtown Toronto- Queens Crescent**

Aidan strolled along the buildings. He had met this Fitzroy in the backyard of a club. Obviously this meant to be his preferred method to get to some food. Aidan did have no clue how often this vampire would have to feed; If every night or more rarely.

But it couldn´t be that difficult to find a man who looked so similar to his son, with the difference that Fitzroy looked younger because he was turned then at age seventeen instead of Henry who had been in his early twenties when Aidan saved his life with his immortal blood.

Watching them both, side by side, they could have been brothers, anybody seeing them by coincidence. But this was quite impossible. Henry Durham was born 1895 and he was an American who had come into the US Army by general conscription, taking up his duty in the medical staff. As far as Aidan knew, Henry´s family has had absolutely no familiar connections to the farthest branches of British royals or noblemen, so it was impossible that he had any drop of Tudor blood. Aidan shrugged his shoulders and walked down the street, watching out for a semi-familiar face.

He wasn´t certain, how to react when he would, more by fate or luck, than by any rules of research, meet Fitzroy again. The other would be really pissed off to meet him here and he would need a real good excuse to run into him in restricted area, far from his hotel. Fitzroy was well aware about the routes he and his son will have to take to reach the part of town where search for food, for blood, was allowed by him.

And he, Aidan, walked southwards. The opposite direction of which they were allowed to feed!

Maybe he was risking his life! But that won´t be the first time and won´t be the last time in his long existence. The life of his son was at risk!

If it won´t have been for this damn flu, he wouldn´t have been forced again to go to lengths with his decisions and his acting. He had saved Henry´s life twice and he would not be able to let go this time. Despite all trouble Henry had caused, especially in his early years, Aidan felt a strange and strong connection to him like a father loving his son. And his affection was deeply returned by Henry.

On what hellish base had this friggin virus come up, spreading among human and vampires, to vampires a deadly threat! His knowledge about virus lacked of deeper experience than what he had gotten to know by his work as a nurse. It needed a doctor to develop any real cure, especially when it came to vampires.

Ogh goodness, he couldn´t go to any doctor, explaining the problem and simply begging for help. They had tried almost everything: human clean blood, clean vampire blood, even animal blood…with no result.

Either they died or they made it out of Boston, out of any city or town, to avoid contact with human who spread it among themselves, and by blood, among the vampires.

His last hope was Fitzroy, who descended from another species obviously…

But the vampire was going to be their enemy if he would raise his anger. And dead blood was of no use!

His mind tumbled over when he tried to find any solution…any!

Aidan knew that his idea might be crazy beyond imagination, but there was no other solution left.

Hope dies last!

Aidan had to be careful not to stare into everybody´s face, every guy with brown, slightly curly hair. But he clung to his idea like a drowning man to a straw.

Must find him, Must find him, must find him…

Aidan repeated it like a Mantra.

He walked slowly along the club´s entrances and when he had reached the southern end of this side he turned over and walked north on the other side of the road. Aidan tried to fight his upcoming doubts. What, when he was simply wasting his time. He didn´t know how much time Henry would have until the flu would break out on him with full intensity. He hadn´t seen any traces on the skin yet. But he had been too shortly with Atlee to know how much time it took until the disease reached its full level and lesions on the skin would become visible…

Atlee had died shortly after!

His heartbeat sped up when he felt fear rising, that he would probably find Henry with lesions when he would return. His heart pounded in his chest and in his ears and his head suddenly felt like cotton balls.

He felt a strong knot building up in his throat, which suddenly felt dry and thick. Aidan cleared his throat and blinked desperately to keep burning tears from rising. Blood tears were the last thing that should be visible in public. Angrily he wiped over his eyes with the back of his hand. He sniffed and ordered himself to concentrate onto his search. He walked forward with grim determination but after a few steps the feelings came back and he blinked again, stared on a group of teens, who were waiting in front of an entrance. He couldn´t check every club from inside and if he won´t find the other vampire tonight…

The noises and sounds from the club, the voices of the people and the noises from the street mixed in his ears to a pounding crescendo and in reflex, he turned around, shading his ears with his hands. Aidan gasped and shook his head in an attempt to regain some control.

Never before he had imagined that the deadly threat over his son would shake him to the ground of his soul. He had killed and he had seen people, friends and vampires die. But for the death of his son and his wife it had never touched him like this. And he became aware that Henry meant so much more to him, now, that he had lost all his old connections long ago. Henry had become more than a simple substitute for old relations.

Henry had really become his son.

Aidan suddenly staggered and he let himself drift against the next brick wall, his hand almost crashed into it when he caught his weight and his spin. It was tingling and he gasped when his eyesight faded and became foggy.

He hadn´t feed since days and the lack of blood now began to take its toll on him.

"Damn, I have to go on! No weakness now. Not now!" he commanded himself in a low voice.

"I will show you what real weakness means!" a voice barked at him.

Aidan couldn´t turn around, couldn´t clear his eyesight fast enough to see who it was, when at the same moment he was brutally whirled against the opposite wall of the narrow passage. Unprepared for the attack, his head hit the wall and it added an additional dizziness to his current constitution. He growled, tried to push himself away from the wall, his eyesight shaded, his head pounding and he felt some moisture on the backside.

Aidan stared at his attacker.

It was…

…Fitzroy.

Aidan clenched his fist and threw himself forward, but a hand caught his fist, clung to it, turning around his hand with such force that he screamed from pain and Fitzroy´s other hand closed around his throat. Then he was thrown back against the wall and a knee hit him in the crotch. The pain was disturbing and Aidan bent downwards. The next moment he found himself flat on the ground, face on the moist pathway tiles. A weight like a ton sat on his back, a knee pressing with brutal force into his spine. He couldn´t move anymore.

The hand pressed his face to the ground and Aidan tried to turn his head to one side, so he could breathe at least. It merely worked and he bit his lip with his fangs. Cool breath touched his ear, the voice a whisper. His arm was turned backwards and folded over his back, the wrist burning like fire.

"I have warned you, Aidan Waite! I have warned you not to hunt my territory!"

"I´m…no…not…hunti…" Aidan choked.

The pressure onto his head rose and his tongue was pierced between his fangs like that of a slaughtered pig. He choked, tried to free himself with all his remaining strength, but the lack of blood let him be disadvantaged against a Fitzroy who may have fed recently…

Blood!

If only he would have access to clean blood!

Feeding. Regaining his strength, but…

"Shut up! We made a deal! Obviously you have a very bad memory! I should have killed you the first moment I met you!" Fitzroy growled and his voice rumbled in Aidan´s ears.

Desperately Aidan tried to lift up his back under the weight of the vampire who hung on him like a spider. He buckled but Fitzroy was much stronger in the moment and with easiness he kept Aidan down to the ground.

"Don't. Move! Or I´ll break your neck!" Fitzroy hissed. His double set of fangs had dropped, his eyes bled black and he doubled the pressure onto Aidan´s neck for a part of a second. Not deadly but enough to give him an impression, that it would take him only a minimum of effort to kill him.

Aidan growled and groaned. He could barely speak because his chin was pressed on the ground, his teeth clenched and so he could only choke.

"Ki…ll…me…an…and my…son dies!" He brought out with much effort, barely audible. But Fitzroy could hear him clear and well.

"He…die…ss!"

"As you will die!" Fitzroy hissed and let his fist smash onto the shoulder what Aidan made screaming from pain again. "You crossed not only one border with your offspring, but every else I have set up!"

"Then,,,kill me…and you´ll…get…do….down…TWO…at once!" Aidan pressed out and he let his head sink down, preparing himself for the deadly blow that would crunch his head and smash his brain into the ground. "And…you…will have…to live…wi…th mur…der on inno…cents!" Aidan whispered with much effort.

Obviously Fitzroy seemed to hesitate for a moment.

Aidan took advantage of it, buckled wildly and managed it to throw Fitzroy down from his back, tossing himself around on his back and he pulled his knees under his chest and brought them forward in a kick. His feet hit Fitzroy´s chest and he fell onto his back.

Aidan jumped to his feet but before he could place a second blow, Fitzroy had him at his throat and shoulder again and pushed him back into the brick wall. Aidan´s head hit the wall and he nearly lost consciousness. He stumbled and slowly he slipped down at the wall until he was more lying than sitting at its base, his head sunken onto his chest.

The world turned black and when he regained consciousness, his hands were tied up behind his back. He couldn´t see which material Fitzroy had used but it was tied so tight that his fingers went numb and tingling. His hurt wrist burned. It took him an immense effort to open his eyes to narrow slits. His cheek burned and he smelled his own blood on his lips.

"WH…why…did…not…kill. Me?" Aidan gasped when his split lip burned and he tried to lick over it but his throat was dry and his voice raspy and hoarse.

"I won´t kill uselessly, I´m no brainless murder, Aidan Waite!" Fitzroy bent deeper to him and his face became clearer but he kept out of the range of Aidan´s fangs when he grabbed him by the hood of his sweater, pulling him in an upright position.

"My father had been a rigorous judge over life and death. Not all of his sentences were lawful, but at least he taught me to listen to an accused before judging over him! So will do I!" Fitzroy declared and for a moment he kept silent to give Aidan a chance to become fully aware of his words and his intention.

"You…kidding, Fitzroy!" Aidan gasped and spat blood onto his shirt. "Do…it! And. Take it…over with!"

Aidan felt that he had kind of closed with his life now.

And Henry would die with him, even a short time later.

How

He would make it longer than him, despite dying from the flu. Life can be so unfair. How much he had wanted to stay with his son to the last moments. Holding his body in his arms until vampire death would finally win and then only dust would remain from the man, he once had saved from death. The man who had become like a son for him. Like the boy he had lost by fatal circumstances. His kid who had been born to him…

…pure and untainted.

Fitzroy stood in front of him now, his face stern, fangs down, his eyes black pools in the dim light. His arms were crossed in front of his chest and he stared at the vampire who was lying at his feet. A captive, tied up and ready to be judged. With the only difference that there were no bars around him like in the dungeons of the London Tower.

For a mere second Fitzroy felt like he had slipped back in time to the era of the Tudor family and his father, Henry VIII, was standing behind him, testifying how his son would improve under his eyes.

"So, Aidan…I accuse you for breaking into my territory and after it, breaking the deal we have had made. A deal that was set up to get to some steady situation, only by my grace and mercy, my good will, until you and your son will be leaving within two days and nights!"

Fitzroy looked down at Aidan who stared at him weakly and angrily.

His eyes were bled black, his face wore bruises and abrasions from the fight. His lip was split and his chin and collar tainted with his own blood. Aidan choked, coughed and spat a mix of saliva and blood before he answered in a low voice. His throat was dry and sore, his weakened voice barely audible.

"I…I came over here…with Henry…for…refuge. We left…Boston…cuz of the flu...that killed…most of our kind. I hoped…for some safety…simply being safe here…Me and my son. But…" Aidan broke, swallowed hard and went finally on. "But death is a reaper…with no mercy! My son…he will die!"

Aidan´s voice broke and he choked and fought for breath. His view broke under the stern look of Fitzroy.

When Fitzroy suddenly asked him, Aidan had never expected that he would be interested into their fate to the slightest.

It was a surprise.

But maybe he only wanted to play with his weak and in every way broken captive. A vampire, falling prey to a vampire.

Fitzroy´s voice was calm and steady surprisingly. His view never flickered when he looked at Aidan while he spoke.

"Tell me! Your son is going to die? What from?"

Fitzroy knew a lot of reasons why even a vampire could di; stakes, fire, the loss of way too much blood, severe burns with no chance to heal by feeding, dying from starving under enforced conditions. The sun. There would be more he even couldn´t count now.

Aidan´s answer was a surprise, even to Fitzroy. A reason he never would have expected when it came to vampires.

"He is dying from the flu…"

"The? Flu?" Fitzroy was astonished. Mortals could die from the flu under some certain circumstances, but vampires were meant to be immune against all kind of diseases. "How can that happen?"

Aidan nodded weakly.

"A virus. It spread among human as a usual sickness, but…by drinking blood from someone who was sick or had been sick…it jumped over to us. We…I and my son…we searched for clean blood…but he got infected from anybody…He will…die…!" Aidan broke and Fitzroy saw the pain in his face.

"Where do you know from? What is it that makes you safe with your opinion?"

"The cynical with the flu is that it shows the same symptoms on vampires as on human. Pain to the skin and the muscles, coughing, sweating, freezing, weakness…and finally, in difference…to a human victim, there will be lesions that start…one place, spreading over the whole body finally…before we crumble to dust by dying…it…it looks, like body tissue is dissolving, like necrosis…"

"You have seen it?"

"Yes. On another vampire. He died beside me! Despite the fact he dad drunken clean human and clean vampire blood. It won´t help! Once you got infected, you will die inevitably. There is no cure!" Aidan broke and his voice trailed away and he choked and when he could breathe again, he started to sob, his shoulders shaking with the fits.

"What about vaccination? Humans get vaccinated to prevent an infection!" Fitzroy mentioned on what he knew from Vicki and her friend, the forensic.

"I don´t know if it would work. For Henry…it´s too late!"

Fitzroy stared at Aidan, his mind working. He had never heard of a virus of such deathly strength before, but that meant nothing. Maybe a doctor should know, he thought.

"I hoped, that…that maybe…other vampire blood…could be a cure!" Aidan whispered.

"So you thought…to get to my blood! To heal your son!" Fitzroy´s voice became icy. His eyes bore into Aidan´s when he stepped nearer to him, his hands clenching to fists.

"Ye…yes…" Aidan choked. He lifted his head and looked into Fitzroy´s face, saw the anger in it despite the fact that the tears were shading his sight. His tied up hands made it impossible to wipe his face and he felt his eyes burning. Angrily he sniffed and tried to give his face a stern expression, equal to that of Fitzroy.

Fitzroy grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie and pulled him up halfway. Aidan struggled to stand but his dizzy head felt like lolling around on his shoulders. He was a mere bundle in the hands of an angry vampire now and he wondered where from Fitzroy knew this fighting skills that looked Police-style.

He had seen Bishop fixing suspects this way.

Fitzroy pushed him against the wall and Aidan managed it to prevent his head from hitting the bricks again.

"Le´me go!" he barked through clenched teeth, "I´ll go! Together with my son! You´ll get rid of any fucking vamp problems and we simply die. Should get a dust pan for him soon...!" Aidan switched to bitter cynicism, now that he saw his last hope going down the drain.

All seemed to have become useless by now.

Aidan felt about to give up.

Anything Fitzroy seemed to see or feel or smell on him. An enemy giving in, capitulating, ready to go...

...forever.

Anything in Fitzroy´s mood seemed to change suddenly. Maybe he had provoked anything deep within him. The basic instinct for survival, the basic instinct never to give up the worse it would be. Aidan didn´t know and he knew nothing about the other one, his intentions, his instincts, so different they maybe were. If so. He knew only that...

Fitzroy pushed him roughly to the wall, his hand going for his throat and his head was pressed upwards and to the side when the fangs came nearer. He could smell the breath of the other vampire, feel it cool and fast on the sensitive skin of his throat and he growled in defense. Fangs scratched over his throat and for a mere second Aidan remembered the moment Atlee´s fangs had sunken in by desperate urge,

The moment stretched into an eternity, when Aidan tried to fix Fitzroy with his eyes...

"You gonna let your son die? Bastard! How dare you!?" Fitzroy shouted at him in despise. His voice dripping with contempt.

"You...want it!" Aidan choked. The answer was weak and nonsense, but he wasn´t willing to give in now in front of the vampire. He waited for the inevitable bite. This bastard was about to feast on him!

"Yo...you...gonna die...from it!" Aidan pressed out, a last attempt of self defense. "My...blood..."

"I won´t! But he will! How dare you to let your son simply die, without so ever trying to save his life?"

"I...I tried... Aidan could barely breathe under the pressure around his throat. This vampire was so much stronger than him now. Well fed.

All out of a sudden Fitzroy pushed him forward and Aidan was whirled around, he stumbled and found himself on the ground again, only to be pulled up again.

"You are that damn weak!"

Aidan found himself pushed forward and Fitzroy had him in a safe grip, watching at him with contempt while he pushed him in direction of a car that was parked in the shades.

"Where are you gonna bring me? Kill me now? " Aidan choked while he tried to regain his balance. Instead he was pushed on the backseat of the car when Fitzroy opened the door on the passenger´s side. The door slammed shut beside him.

Aidan stared at Fitzroy´s neck from the position where he was thrown in the back area of the car. He didn´t know where they were driving to. With much effort he could turn his body so far that at least he could put his legs down and come up to an upright position. His hands were tied behind his back and his wrist and his arms were hurting. The dizziness from the multiple collisions with the brick wall in the back yard subsided a bit and he swallowed hard to clear his throat. The dizziness produced a slight nausea in his intestines from which he couldn´t differ, if it based on the injuries on his head and face or if it was coming from his hunger. He had been starving over days and weeks and his whole body was hurting from hunger additionally to his weak constitution.

Fitzroy drove through the traffic and Aidan wasn´t used to Toronto, so he couldn´t make out where they were driving.

"He! Ya´ listening…anyway?" Aidan growled from the back seat. He robbed forward a bit onto his seat, bringing his mouth nearer to the back of Fitzroy´s head.

"Where are…we driving to?...Getting any answer, man?"

When he stopped at a traffic light, Fitzroy´s head turned around, his face tensed when he saw how near his captive had moved in despite the large back space of his Jaguar.

In reflex and by surprise he growled at Aidan, his fangs itching to drop again.

"Get back on your seat and stay down!" he commanded right into Aidan´s face, his fangs only inches away from him. Aidan backed down. "I don´t wanna have you hanging around in anybody´s sight!"

"What? And where the frigg we´re gonna go?" Aidan spat. Slowly he was losing his temper, irrespective that he was unable to do anything beyond sitting in a car and being transported like this freak Liam had done to him. With the difference that Fitzroy didn´t use a muzzle…

"I. AM. HUNGRY! I´m starving since WEEKS! Gonna get it?" His voice become half an octave higher and the level threatened to burst Fitzroy´s sensitive vampire hearing.

"I got it! You will get food where we are going to!" Fitzroy growled back; "so…Shut up!"

He could understand that his uninvited passenger was hungry. Probably he was starving since weeks when they had a problem with blood down there in Boston.

"Which food? I only survived cuz of staying away from…uncertain sources! I´m not gonna take ANY stuff now! Or…if you´ll kill me!" Aidan barked and he bent forward again but Fitzroy´s warning view made him sink down again.

"I won´t give you ANY stuff! I have access to so called clean blood, from a safe source. You won´t have to worry about, Aidan!" Fitzroy shot him a look and then turned forward again when the traffic light switched to green.

A grunt from behind told him that Aidan seemed to be satisfied with the answer. The only question would be if Aidan would keep enough control while feeding.

A starving vampire, especially one…or two to count with his son…he doesn´t know anything about, would be kind of incalculable. Fitzroy knew how bad hunger could rise, so that any control was slipping totally. He had gone through his by himself more than once.

He drove down the broadly lit street and turned over to another street, finally driving through a gate into a parking lot that was lying in a court yard. When he stopped, his passenger slowly lifted his head and lurked over the lower frame of the side window.

"Are we don yet?"

Aidan let fall himself down when a police officer went by, meeting another one who was following him.

"What the heck? Where are we?" Aidan cursed.

Obviously Fitzroy had driven them into a police station!

Damn bastard!

"What did you do? Driving me right to the damn cops! Is this the way you´re gonna delivering in your captives? Bastard! Damn bastard!" Aidan cursed and hectically thought over how to get away from here. Running over the parking lot, with tied hands, would mobilize any cop around, hunting him down like a damn rat.

"Hm, you´re not the first one calling me a bastard." Fitzroy grinned a bit.

"WHAT?"

"A bastard." Fitzroy answered softly.

Aidan pulled at his ties like mad but he was way too weakened to break them. He growled with anger, kicked against the back of the driver´s seat.

"Shut up!" Fitzroy growled back, staring right into Aidan´s now darkening eyes. They were so damn similar to his own, with the difference that his eyes remained a small corona of darkest blue around their pupils. Aidan´s were totally black colored.

"You won´t get me into a police station alive, Fitzroy! Never ever! Rather I´ll die right in here!"

"Stop that! I don´t want to rise any attention! I told you that…"

"You told me to get me some food! Nothing else! And now we are ending up at the goddamn police!"

"Where you will end up definitely if you don´t stop messing up me and yourself! I could have killed you, right away, in that alley in Downtown! But I didn´t! And I won´t do NOW! So shut up and behave like a man! I know you´re hungry! I promised you blood and you will get it in there…" Fitzroy directed to the door of the building in the background. "DID you understand this?"

Fitzroy stared at him, his fangs bared under the slightly opened lips. Four tips of fangs.

Aidan had set all his hope in a difference between them, being a different vampire species.

Different blood, even when they fed on humans…

Josh had told him anything about antibodies, vaccination and stuff. Maybe any chance when he got access to Fitzroy´s blood.

"Okay! Now…" the words of the other vampire pulled him out of his thoughts and his tension.

"WHAT?!" Aidan snapped. He wasn´t willing to give himself over to Fitzroy. This guy had no right to handle him like his captive, reduced to a snack bag or something like this!

"WHAT?"

Fitzroy looked at him, his face determined. This vampire either was mad from hunger or simply hostile. Or both. Probably the idea to help Aidan and his son might be coming out a great mistake finally. But he wasn´t the type to break up what he once had started.

"Okay, Aidan! I will bring you inside now! And…" Fitzroy began again in an attempt to calm him down so far, it would be possible to talk to him more reasonable.

"Won´t go anywhere!" Aidan growled.

"Listen! Slowly I´m running tired of this! I´ll explain you what I´m about to do and you will listen to me or I´ll throw you out here, right among those cops who are still waiting to pick up a guy like you! It would be a pleasure for them to rough up a renitent captive!" Fitzroy gave him a pause to think over his words, before he went on with a sigh.

Aidan nodded finally.

"Okay…this is…we are at the Forensic Department of the TMP! There is…"

"I know what a forensics is! I won´t feed from corpses! No way! Whatever you had in mind by it!" Aidan protested. To feed on any corpses multiplied any chance to catch the damn flu right away with the first sip.

"You won´t feed from corpses! That´s gross! Disgusting!" Fitzroy´s face was torn with revulsion. The pure thought of it made his hair standing on end. He thought if this Aidan ever fed on corpses, out of need. Bagged blood was okay, a living source was okay…but corpses: no way!

"We´ll go in there and I know one of the forensics! She´s a doctor and she knows about vampires and all stuff! She´s secretly, but maybe…I say maybe! She will find a way to help you and your son! She has access to clean blood from the Toronto General and you can drink from bagged blood…"

Aidan´s frustrated and stern face seemed to get some light into it. Not a smile, but an expression of relief.

"I…I need blood for my son Henry!" he threw in.

"Of course! I guess he´s starving like you. There will be access to enough blood over the time…"

"He…he is…so weak and I´m not even sure if he´s strong enough to make it over here…" Henry had been lying on the bed, shivering and coughing from time to time. Fortunately there still had been no lesions yet when he had left him in the hotel room. But that might change all too fast if things grew worse…he thought. The prospect of feeding, feeding on clean blood at least let his dark mood subside a bit.

"I know. But there will be a solution for this. I´ll untie you by now! You can´t walk in there like a captive because I´m no Detective. That would raise any suspect! I order the promise from you that you´ll behave normal and calm! The doctor is a good friend of me whom I trust to. At least she will listen to you and maybe she has an option at hand to find a cure…But she´s the doctor there! We can only beg she has any idea…" Fitzroy explained and bent deeper with a knife at hand.

Aidan watched him moving over to his back as far as he could turn his head. Fitzroy could easily cut his throat, beheading him instead of cutting through his ties. For seconds Aidan stiffened, then the ropes fell and he could move his hands. His wrist was swollen and large bruises were forming where Fitzroy nearly had broken his wrist. Carefully he rubbed it, moaning softly when it hurt. Fitzroy stepped back and reached Aidan a helping hand.

tbc


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

**Toronto Metropolitan Police- Forensic department**

He grabbed it and climbed out of the car. His back and his head were hurting all over, but he tried to hide it from Fitzroy, who now locked his car and waved him to follow him. Obviously this wasn´t the first time he was at the laboratories. They passed a guard at the entrance and Fitzroy smiled at the man who watched him warily.

"Is Dr. Mohadevan in here tonight?"

"Yeap. she´s in her laboratory. On with the clients. As usual, sir."

"Okay, thank you. Come on..." Fitzroy turned over to Aidan who was standing at the entrance, a bit uncertain. "What´s up?" he added.

"Uhm, is this...a...public building...or her private one...?" Aidan asked a bit afraid. His view went down to his toes.

"Why?" Fitzroy´s brows knitted.

"Uhm...if it´s private...I gonna need an...in...invitation...", he whispered to Fitzroy.

"He, what´s up Mister? Never entered a forensics before? Gee, the dead ones are dead! No worry, they won´t pad your shoulder!" the guard smiled.

If you would know... Aidan thought. The dead weren´t such dead things like science told.

"Otherwise what?" Fitzroy whispered into his ear.

"Ashes." Aidan closed in a low voice.

"Uh oh! What about sunlight?"

"No. problem. Old legends."

"No old legends. But...so be it. Come in, it´s public!" He whispered into Aidan´s ear and grabbed him by the sleeve, pulling him in discretely. Aidan crossed the threshold and a strong wave of disinfectant hit him with full force. His eyes were searching the hallway and the offices to both sides for corpses. But here in the basement were no cases kept. Aidan was somewhat hesitant when they walked along the hall. He felt Fitzroy´s hand in his back when he directed him around a corner. After a few steps Fitzroy knocked at a glass window where the blinds were closed.

They heard footsteps and one edge of the blind were lifted to the side.

A woman in her middle ages looked out and when she recognized Fitzroy she smiled and the blind fell. A moment later a door was opened and Aidan saw that she was wearing blue laboratory clothes. Her thick, black hair was tied to a ponytail behind her head and her skin color showed that she was descending from India.

She smiled at Fitzroy and Aidan, her soft dark brown eyes with the long lashes added to the friendly expression of her face.

It looked like she wasn´t surprised by the late visitors.

"Good evening, Henry! Come in! What´s up? Does Vicki have a new case...? She should herself allow some rest...I guess she works too much..." She watched at Aidan and checked him with the experience of the forensic. Something on him showed her that his constitution was not the best at the moment.

"Hello, I´m Dr. Mohadevan...I´m the leading forensic here...Sorry for the mess…" she directed to the tables which were standing at the side and in the center of the large room. One was empty, the other was covered with a white sheet and Aidan could make out under it the shape of a body.

The good doctor had a case on the table.

"But I had been busy until a few minutes ago...Mike is somewhat urgent with my lady here...I think Inspector Crowley bites his butt with it..." she smiled. She pulled the sheet over the edge of the table and shoved it to the side.

"Okay...Mac will get her out later...Henry, what can I do for you?" She stripped down her surgical gloves and threw them into a waste bag. She cleaned her hands while Aidan looked around the large room. Out of the corner of her eye she checked his features...

He looked pale and not healthy. His skin was tightening over his cheek bones and his face wore the traces of an obvious fight. She asked herself what was going on with him. His chest seemed to be muscular and he was taller than Henry. His dark brown hair was tousled, his view full of concern and she saw something in his eyes that she knew from Henry...

...hunger. Barely hidden with effort.

A suspect grew in her. Vampire.

But she didn´t fix on it until Fitzroy would tell her.

Dr. Mohadevan turned over to Aidan.

"What can I do for you, Mister...?"

"Waite. Aidan Waite..." he introduced himself to her. "I´m kinda...visitor here, in Toronto..."

"Where do you come from, Mr. Waite?" she asked with a soft voice.

"Boston..." He slightly smiled. Aidan relaxed a bit. The doctor seemed not to be too concerned, obviously she was used to uncommon circumstances.

"Oh, I have relatives over there...a beautiful city and a famous institute...Massachusetts Institute of Technology. My cousin is studying there."

"Pretty good university, yes!"

"Okay...uhm now...please tell me, Henry, what is the reason for your visit?"

"I´m afraid we disturbed you at work..." Fitzroy directed to the table.

"You won´t! Not _you_!"

"Dr., we need your help...if any help is possible! Aidan needs help for his son...it is urgent and I ´m afraid it is very difficult..."

"What happened, Henry?" She watched over Aidan again. Which problem did he hide?

"His son got infected by the flu...Normally that won´t be a problem in general, but you have to know; his son, like him, is a vampire!"

Dr. Mohadevan nodded; "That´s what I guessed so! I was having my slight suspect but I wanted to wait until you or Mr. Waite is going to verify it..." she shrugged her shoulders with a smile, looked into Aidan´s eyes. Then she become serious again; "But as a vampire you can´t get sick, normally. But what happened, Mr. Waite?"

"My son fed on bad blood. From an infected person. When we fed on flu blood, it strangely spreads over to us. The virus kills us more or less fast. Most of ours die within approximately a week. First they feel bad, weak, than a heavy bronchitis starts and there are lesions developing on the skin that will spread over the whole body and finally they die..." Aidan tried to hold tight on himself, to keep his composure. The thought at Henry threatened to drive the tears into his eyes again.

Dr. Mohadevan looked astonished. First of all that a vampire could become seriously sick and then the fact that Aidan used medical terminology. Every other person would use the word wound instead of lesion for it.

"What is your profession, Mr. Waite, that you´re using medical terminology?"

"I´m working as a nurse, Dr.!"

"Oh. Uh hu! Okay, good..." Not bad, she thought. So he was of some same level with her and working with him would be much simpler.

"Did you try...vaccination? For yourself and or your son? Or any of your…companions? You´re living in a kind of community?" she asked. Better to know with what she would have to cope with. No surprise probably when certain things were set clear.

"We once have been a whole...kinda family. There had been a lot of us but most of them are dead now, killed by this virus. And my son will die too soon...Vaccination didn´t work on us. I suppose our immune system is not able to develop any defense strategy against the virus, as in humans."

"Maybe a highly pathogenic variation of the flu virus that developed itself by a jump- mutation when it switched from humans to vampires. Maybe it´s a specific vampire problem."

"But how will be any cure found if it´s specific on us?" Aidan had strong doubts that there would be any slight chance for his son...

"Okay...how is the constitution of your son? I must know to estimate how..." she began, her voice calm but Aidan could hear her concern behind it. He interrupted her before she could finish.

"How long he still has! Tell me the truth, Dr.! You have experience with the virus!?" He stared into her face, his eyes turned black and his fangs itched to fall. Not out of aggression but out of concern and fear. Aidan felt his heartbeat speeding up.

"Not on vampires. He..." she directed to Fitzroy; "...he is free of any disease. No problems like in human beings, mortals. Resistant against any disease...A highly developed immune system."

Aidan sighed before he went on.

"He is...we didn´t feed over a longer period. We are lacking of safe blood and we came over here in the hope to find some clean blood!"

"That won´t be safe, Mr. Waite. The flu is here in Toronto too. So no safe feeding if you don´t know if the person got infected..." Dr. Mohadevan explained and by this warned him at the same moment.

"So it was useless to come over here. As it is for Henry..." Aidan sounded resigned. He choked hard and felt a hard knot constricting his throat.

"For him?" she directed to Fitzroy.

"The name of my son is Henry."

"Uh oh! Useless? I won´t say that...I´m thinking that over. Henry...Mr. Fitzroy...he has a natural resistance against diseases. His immune system is highly efficient. When we would vaccinate his blood with the virus then it may develop antibodies against the virus. Splitting the antibodies from the blood and injecting them into your son...the same strategy is used in the therapy of Diphtheria; an antiserum! It is developed from patients who recover from it without antibiotics..."

Fitzroy stepped back abruptly.

"I won´t let myself get vaccinated with an unknown and probably deadly virus! No way! You don´t know anything about it! The less I for myself..."

What the doctor said was ridiculous! He would never allow her to do it!

Never!

His fangs fell and his eyes turned into black pools.

Aidan could understand why Fitzroy was upset and denying. Getting infected with a, probably even for him, deadly virus in an attempt to provoke the growing of antibodies...

It could maybe kill him right away!

Fitzroy was at her desk within the blink of an eye, his hands propped on the desk. He looked deep into the eyes of the woman, the doctor, he most trusted to beside Vicki. She had helped him when the native witch had tried to kill him by magic, after Mike accidentally had shot him in an attempt to kill a Harpy. Dr. Mohadevan was one of the few mortals who knew what he was. The vampire behind the human masks he was living. With her he could live his real nature and she would not shrink back from him.

But what she wanted from him now...was way too much. And the doctor would have to understand it. The risk was too high despite her knowledge and his immune system. He had no experience with such a virus. How it would work on his body. When Aidan said that all the infected vampires died...

"Doctor, I won´t do that!" Fitzroy stated and his look bore into her eyes. She was, in difference to Vicki, not resistant against his vampire skills. Compelling her into denying this idea would be easy. His voice got the timbre he used on unexpected blood donors. A bit deeper than normal, his eyes fixed on the person in front of him.

The moment the doctor was distracted by Fitzroy´s mind controlling skills, Aidan turned around and his eyes searched the room for any...

...food.

He stepped along the shelves and the closets, reached a large fridge in one corner. Without hesitation and after a short look on Fitzroy and the doctor, just to be safe, he opened the door.

"What are you searching for, Mr. Waite!? That´s not a private fridge!" he heard her voice from behind. A second later a hand reached forward, and before he could search through the glass shelves, she withdrew the doorknob from his fingers without any hesitation and closed the fridge´s door.

"What are you searching for? Do I have to repeat it?" Her eyes looked into his which threatened to turn black but it did impress her not in the slightest.

"I...I´m starving..,!" he whispered under his breath. His voice barely audible and his face showed his awkwardness about his unveiled reaction out of hunger.

Dr. Mohadevan looked into his face. Her expression was that of calmness. He wondered how calm she stayed despite the fact that what he had done, was an absolute No-Go.

This wasn´t their home in Boston.

He stepped back, his view aimed to the ground. Because of guilt.

Aidan bit his lower lip, chewed on it and he didn´t say a word now.

Fitzroy had turned around and watched him from his position, his eyes wary. He knew what was going on in Aidan. Who knows since how long he was starving cause of the flu...

Dr. Mohadevan put his thoughts into words the next moment.

"How long haven´t you feed, Aidan?" Her voice calm and soft, she simply called him by his name to establish some familiarity. She looked at him, waiting for him to answer.

"Since four weeks..." he whispered.

Fitzroy stiffened in shock. Four weeks! He couldn´t remember any time he had been starving that long. His body would have gone into hunting mode, the latest after one week. Through what had this vampire gone? He must be absolutely on the edge. No wonder he simply went for the fridge, especially since he had promised him to provide him with food. For sure Aidan was nearly mad from hunger and was holding back now only with utmost effort...

"Oh my god!" she answered, her voice full of pity Then she nodded and opened the fridge door again. She reached into the shelves and took out a bag of blood, reached it to him.

His eyes bled black and his fangs dropped when he was holding the cold bag in his hands.

The hunger was rising with rural force and he barely could swallow back a growl.

"It´s cold, I´m sorry...but I think it´ll do for now..." She smiled slightly, her hand on his forearm. He felt her warm and living skin. It made him shiver.

"Is it...?" he began a bit uncertain.

"Safe? It is. All blood here is tested for all viruses. Also for the flu. It´s from the hospital, not from any corpse. They test it all before it´s stored, for not endangering any patients. The immune system is often weakened in patients after accidents or under surgery, so there would be danger for them to develop a manifest flu infection under these circumstances."

Aidan nodded. His fingers trembled with excitement. The pain in his veins seemed to rise, now that he was going to drink for the first time since weeks. He knew all too well what had happened to Henry. The hunger must have overwhelmed him finally and he had become unwarily.

"You can feed. It´s safe even when it won´t be what you´re probably used to, Aidan..."

He looked at her, turned around and tore the bag open with his teeth. Urgently he began to suck at it like through a straw.

The blood was cold. Storage unit temperature. But it didn´t matter now.

Fitzroy´s face was torn with slight disgust. He didn´t prefer bagged blood. It was only for a case of emergency, not the regular way of feeding. He had bags at home, just in case. But normally he used a glass to warm it up in the microwave.

Aidan swallowed and the blood ran down his throat. The taste threatened to overwhelm him, also when there was a hint of stabilizer under it like all blood from hospital.

Dr. Mohadevan turned to Fitzroy.

"Henry, I didn´t mean to grow antibodies in your blood in your body! I won´t dare! Way too dangerous because we don´t know anything about the virus´ pathogenicity... I would try it extracorporeal! Under laboratory conditions. That would be safe, Henry..."

"Okay, than I beg your pardon because I misunderstood you. I had been afraid that..."

"I would never have considered this, Henry. I´m open minded but not daredevil..." she smiled, than she took the empty bag from Aidan, threw it into a waste bag.

"All okay?" she watched him with concern and then he got it that she was waiting for an answer.

"Yeap. It´s all good. Thank you, Dr.!" He looked at his stained fingers. "I´m sorry...I´m so sorry..." he mumbled.

"It´s all okay...don´t worry. I have seen Henry at his worst too. I´m not afraid of your kind..." She closed a file and then she came over to them again, turning her attention to Aidan.

"Where do you live? Here...in Toronto?"

"We are in a hotel at Baldwin Street...nothing special. Common level...why do you ask?"

"A hotel...uhm, and your son, is he there...?" she thought about the options. A hotel was no good place to care for a man, a vampire, who was seriously ill. The less when it came to apply blood to him. When this Henry was so weakened that he maybe wouldn´t be able to feed, then she would have to provide him with blood via a transfusion. Impossible in a hotel, definitely.

"When I try to find a cure for him, we have to find some other place. He is seriously ill and I can´t care for him in a hotel room. That won´t be safe and maybe I´m gonna need medical equipment..."

She looked at Fitzroy. He caught her look.

"Me? I don´t have free room and I won´t share my rooms with other vampires, Dr.! You know...Maybe...ask Vicki. As far as I know she´s vaccinated against the flu and she maybe will give over one room to them..."

"Probably. But we have to find an option more than fast. Time is kinda running out for his son if so..." Dr. Mohadevan stated.

Aidan looked at her, he wiped over his mouth with the back of his hand. His voice was low and Dr. Mohadevan heard how it trembled. The concern for his son threatened to overwhelm him obviously. Maybe he simply was nervous because now the things seemed to get into movement. Finally...

"We don´t have...much time...I guess...Can we...please...go now?" he urged.

"You´re ready?" Fitzroy interrupted them and he watched Aidan reckoning. The vampire had been hungry and the signs of hunger haven´t disappeared yet, but he seemed to have more control now.

"I´m. If you mean feeding...I can wait for another bag until later, Fitzroy!"

Her point of view had changed to a more open handling of the vampire theme, after Vicki had been pulled into the world of the paranormal by Fitzroy. By the time she discovered more and more details about him and his being a vampire. So she wasn´t astonished about Aidan and his...natural, led by hunger, behavior.

As long as he won´t go right for her throat...

She shrugged her shoulders.

"We can go to your hotel. I only need to get some things together..." She opened a closet, got out a large bag and then she searched through her shelves, putting some medical materials into the bag. Finally she took some bags of blood from the fridge and Aidan saw that they were of different blood types. Normally it didn´t matter which type Henry was drinking, but he understood her good sense for it when she was putting an i.v. set into her bag. Obviously she planned to feed him by a transfusion, if he won´t be able to drink...

When she had filled her bag, she turned to Fitzroy.

"Can we drive now, Henry? Aidan...ready to go?" she smiled at him. Aidan nodded and walked over to the door.

Outside in the courtyard Fitzroy put the heavy bag into the luggage trunk of his black Jaguar. He opened the doors and directed Aidan to take the passenger´s seat beside him. Dr. Mohadevan sat onto the back seat.

"Where is your hotel?" he asked him.

"Baldwin Street. It´s less a hotel than but a small boarding house...We wanted to stay unnoticed..." Aidan´voice was low.

"That´s reasonable. I can comprehend this!" Fitzroy smiled a bit, the first time since Aidan had met him this evening. Their first encounter had not been the way he would have preferred it. Fitzroy had been more than hostile, up to open aggression.

Maybe Fitzroy was only helping them in an attempt to get rid of them again as fast as possible. Was he afraid of a plague spreading among the Toronto inhabitants, his source that had been inflicted by two Boston vampires who roamed his territory? He had registered that Fitzroy seemed to be somewhat disgusted when he saw him feeding from the blood bag. Obviously he preferred feeding on humans.

On the other side: if Fitzroy would let them die, he would get rid of them with no effort.

Fitzroy started the engine, drove backwards out of the parking lot and they left the Institute without problems. The guard at the gate waved to the doctor and she smiled at him.

_Death is an all too willing companion to dance with you..._

The streets were almost free of traffic and it took them only a short time until they reached Baldwin Street. Fitzroy directed to the line of houses to both sides.

"Which one?" he asked.

"There...over there...you better stop here, they have no own parking lot!" Aidan directed to one of the buildings. When they stopped in front of it, his heartbeat was speeding up unintentionally. Fitzroy could hear it. Aidan tried to hide his nervousness. His fingers trembled when he closed the car´s door. He looked over to the house, checking the windows for lights. Their room went to the backside, so they could keep their privacy.

Aidan went first and Fitzroy and Dr. Mohadeven were following him. He opened the door to the house, looked inside. The owner was sitting at his desk.

The owner at the registration desk lifted his head when the trio entered. Aidan´s face was familiar to him. But the woman at his side was unknown to him. And he didn´t like it when lodgers brought in persons of the alternate gender. He had bad experiences with them, turning his small but neat boarding house into a kind of brothel. Visitors were allowed in the breakfast and lobby room, not in the rooms upstairs.

Warily he looked at her, checking this slim and rather small woman for indications of an unwelcome business. Her facial features and appearance told her to be from India and Asia was well known for some services he didn´t want to have in his house. Tenants before had brought in "partners" for special activities.

"I beg your pardon, Ma´am…Whom are you coming for?" He tried to keep his voice friendly but definite.

No crap upstairs!

"She´s with me, Mr. Smith!" Aidan countered.

"This I see, but you know the rules, Mr….uhm…Waite." He directed to the small sealed in paper that was lying on the reception desk, entitled; House rules. "You may have visitors in the lobby of course. No problem, but not in your room."

Aidan shot a view to Fitzroy who had kept himself in the background, his hood pulled up over his head, his face barely visible. Now he made a step forward.

Mr. Smith turned his face to him, became aware of the facial features he had seen before when Mr. Waite had entered together with…he shot a view on his guest`s registration list… a Henry Durham…"

"Oh, you´re back, Mr. Durham…didn´t mention it when you left cuz the keys must be still upstairs…" he mumbled.

Fitzroy estimated the situation within a second. Obviously the man at the desk had mistaken him for Aidan´s son. And when they, like Dr Mohadevan indicated, had to leave with his son for his care, trouble would rise. So he decided to go into medias res instead.

"I´m his brother, Mr. Smith! No problem! And the lady is a relative of me. No trouble in here, Mr. Smith, no reason to worry for the integrity of your well recommended house…" His voice had become deeper and had gotten the timbre he used to compel somebody.

"I´m a cousin of Mr. Durham!" Dr Mohadevan responded fast and she smiled broadly at Mr. Smith. Her best and innocence smile.

Under Fitzroy´s compelling Mr. Smith seemed to swallow the bite without any problems. The cousin image added to the effect. Mr. Smith smiled, his face showing his relief. These persons were righteous, no trouble in sight!

"Okay…you can all go upstairs. Tell me if you need something; coffee, beer…anything." He offered with a business like smiling.

"Okay, thank you Mr. Smith!" Aidan waved to the doctor and Fitzroy to follow him upstairs. The room was on the first floor and waiting for the elevator would only give Mr. Smith some time to ask additional questions now. So he decided to use the staircase to get them out of sight as fast as possible.

Aidan leaded them along the floor to a door almost at the end.

Really some privacy when it came to the position of the room, Fitzroy thought. He carried Dr. Mohadevan´s bag and set it down now, when Aidan opened the door to their room.

Aidan entered the first.

The light was dimmed down to a minimum and the bed was as messy as before, when Aidan had left his son.

"Henry!?" he bent over him, pulling back the blankets to reveal the body under them.

Henry barely reacted and Aidan shook him carefully by the shoulders. A soft moaning answered his attempts.

"Henry?! I´m back! And I´m bringing food!"

"Wha…what…? Food? Where…I…I´m so friggin cold…" Henry gasped and his eyes opened to narrow slits. Aidan dimmed up the light at the wall beside the bed.

"Look at me! Henry! Open your eyes…!" Aidan urged him and Henry hissed when the light started to burn in his eyes. Softly Aidan grabbed at both sides of his head, turning his face to the lamp so he could inspect his eyes more closely.

They were glistening in a strange way. Uncommon for a vampire, more the way he knew from feverish mortals.

"So cold…" Henry mumbled again, grabbing for the blankets which Aidan had pulled down to his feet. Henry had climbed into the bed with shirt, socks and his jeans, not even stripping down to bedtime clothing.

"I know, Henry, I know. I have brought blood with me. Clean blood! From a safe source! You can feed without worrying about. I guess this is the best message since weeks, ain´t it?"

"Emma…you bringing in…Emma?" His mind seemed to fight to get things together. His voice became a dreamful mumbling now when he went on;

"She was…so pretty. So sweet…she tastes…like…Vanilla. You…bringing in… Her…

Again…" He fought for breath when a pain in his chest made him stop.

"No. Not Emma! I have bagged blood for you. And for me…" Aidan tried to explain him. Obviously Henry was caught in the memory of the woman he had held kinda captive before Aidan met her. The flu seemed to shade his receptiveness.

"May…be…but´s…too late…! I´m…I´m infected…Gonna die, Aidan!" Henry gasped helplessly and a coughing fit shook him. He tried to turn to one side for better breathing.

Aidan turned around to Dr. Mohadevan and Fitzroy who were waiting under the doorframe. Aidan recognized that Fitzroy had not asked for a formal invitation. It looked like his species kept some independence from such things, the same way as he was living as the only vampire in Toronto. The territory-thing, Aidan thought. He waved to them to enter.

"Close the door please! I don´t want to raise any attention to our owner…"

The doctor and Fitzroy stepped in and he put down the bag beside a small table. Dr. Mohadevan walked over to the bedside and looked down onto this shivering heap of a vampire. Fitzroy followed her.

It hit him like a shock when he studied the face of Aidan´s progeny.

Now he learned to know why the owner had mistaken him for Durham.

The facial features were so similar, the hair color, the curls that made him look like a twin, or on a more closely watching, Durham looked like a slightly older brother of him.

"When…when was he born, Aidan?" Fitzroy stuttered. And it happened very rarely that he lost his composure.

Maybe his father Henry VIII has had another son…of whom he, the king, didn´t know. It was best known and testified that Henry VIII had held no restrictions when it came to attractive women. The resemblance was bewildering.

Really.

"What? What did you ask…?" Aidan answered back, being distracted by his son´s constitution.

"When was your son…born? His mortal life, I mean, not the turning…" Fitzroy repeated.

"Uh…mortal…He was born in 1896. I turned him in 1918! He´s the only one I ever…" Aidan swallowed hard.

Now Fitzroy could understand why this man/vampire was so clinging to Henry Durham.

"I have lost a child before…a mortal child. My son…" Fitzroy looked into the face and saw that Aidan was fighting to hold his tears back. He nervously licked over his lips and turned back to his son, bent over him.

A hand suddenly padded him on his shoulder softly. He twitched, turned his head and looked into the face of Dr. Mohadevan.

"Yeap…" he sighed.

"Would you please give me some space…?"

"Sorry…yes, of course…oh my god, I´m…I´m so…"

"Concerned. I know…" her voice was soft. She was fully aware that the situation could be running out of track. The younger vampire had not fed for a dangerously long time. Not unequal to Henry Fitzroy when he had been tortured by the crazy inquisitor Mendoza and had been halfway drained to death and starving.

"…but now I would like to examine your son…" she added.

Aidan nodded absently, his eyes not going off his son and his hearing fixed onto his breathing and the soft, half choked moans that came out of his mouth.

Dr. Mohadevan bent over Henry. She looked at him for a mere moment, then her hand reached down to feel his forehead and his temples. Henry twitched and buckled, his eyes widening with fear. The moaning turned into a low growl when he tried to twitch back in reflex. His fangs dropped and he stared at her, his heartbeat speeding up when he couldn´t escape with the bed-head in his back. He was crouched against the wood and pillows, his breath came in fast and hollow gasps.

Dr. Mohadevan pulled back her hand, glad not to be bitten.

Obviously Henry was almost unable to differ who was in front of him.

"Okay, Henry…! Henry, is that right? Is this your name?" she began softly.

He nodded weakly.

"Okay. I´m a doctor…my name is Rajani Mohadevan…Aidan told me that you are sick…"

"Ca…can´t…help me!...Gonna…die!" he choked and his hand tried to shove away her hand that felt for his forehead.

"There´s not the final word said, Henry! I don´t give up so fast! And you won´t too!" her voice was low but determined.

"I…I have…" Henry buckled and tried effortlessly to sit up. With a cough he sank back into the cushions, his fingers clinging to the edge of the blanket. He moaned. "Got…the flu. Will…will kill me!...No…cure" His eyelids half slipped down from weakness and the additional exhaustion, caused by the infection and the coughing fits. "Bad blood…Tainted…" he whispered.

"As I said I don´t give up as long as there´s any life in you, Henry!" she smiled at him, stroked over his forehead and felt him shivering. "I want you to trust me! Don´t try any of these vampire tricks on me! I´m used to your kind guys… Don´t forget! I´m the doctor here, not your meal-on-legs!" she used the expression she once had heard from Vicki when she had caught Henry Fitzroy with a young woman in an explicit situation. "Do you understand me, Henry?"

"Yes…" His reply weak and heavy from tiredness.

Who knows how long he hadn´t fed yet since this outbreak of a so called vampire flu epidemic. She had no experience with the hunger-resistance of these vampires, had only knowledge about Henry Fitzroy´s strength and endurance. All of it, it looked like he had been starving over a long time and together with the infection it was weakening him down to nail him to the bed. His movements were heavy and he seemed to avoid them wherever possible. For sure he definitely lacked of strength and worse, of blood. Of food.

"I have to examine you and I need blood samples from you. You caught this virus and I´ll try if I can raise antibodies against it to apply them to you. If your body can´t fight the virus alone, it needs some help that is ready to go! This works on human Diphtheria infections and maybe also on you. You have a body of flesh and blood and you breathe and you can die anyway, so it´s not the preternatural and ghostly thing one supposes it to be!"

"I…dunno…" he whispered.

"But I do, Henry and as long as I won´t run out of ideas, there will be a chance…" Dr. Mohadevan tried to give him some hope and some comfort. "Beside…I´ll have to get you undressed to check up…"

"I´m…hungry…so hungry…" Henry pressed out in between half opened lips. His eyes black, glistening pools in a pale face that was covered with a thin layer of cold sweat.

"I know…"

"Aidan…he promised me…to eat! Help me!" He lifted his head with a low moan, grabbed for her hand, his fingers clinging to her wrist desperately.

"You will get blood, Henry! I have blood for you. When you are too weak to feed, I will set up an i.v. for you. No problem. But first of all we have to get you out of these clothes…" she turned her head to Aidan who was standing right behind her; "Aidan…please give me some helping hand. He´s weak and together we will strip that down fast…" she begged. Aidan had told her to be a nurse so he should be used to undress and bed people.

"I have checked him for skin lesions before I left tonight…" Aidan whispered. Quite sure Henry could hear him if he wasn´t unconscious now, because his eyes were closed and he didn´t react to them.

Dr. Mohadevan nodded; "And? Any found?"

"No, not so far, but…I guess you…as a forensic…are having better skills in searching for small details." Aidan opened the buttons of Henry´s shirt and Dr. Mohadevan opened the belt and the zipper from the jeans. Her hands were fast and swift and Aidan mentioned that she obviously stripped down unmoving clients more often than only occasionally. "Details I´m not wanna find on him…" Aidan added with a barely audible mumbling.

"Henry? Henry, are you awake?" she asked him, just to be safe. His fever shaded and panic stricken reaction from before should not be repeated, when he almost tried to fight her off. "Henry…?" She waited for an answer.

He gasped.

Okay, take that as an answer when a gasp can be an answer, she thought. She pulled a small mag lite out of her pocket and with two fingers she carefully opened the lids on his right eye, lit the eye to provoke a pupil reaction.

Henry hissed and abruptly threw his head aside.

"Sorry, Henry, is all okay…okay…calm down please…" she mumbled, her hand stroking his temple when she got hold of his head; "So far to the question if he´s unconscious…"

"Le`me be…please…I…I´m…so…hungry!" His voice weak and a whisper.

"I know. You´ll get blood and we better do this via an i.v. in the moment, Henry…" she stroked his forehead and smiled at him. Henry sighed and he relaxed a bit.

The hunger was raging in his veins, piercing him with needles, setting his body on fire. His veins felt like steel wire, wrapped around his muscles, his stomach was in cramps since days and the pain was rising and subsiding alternately. His instincts urged him to feed, against the weakness and against the fever shivers which tormented him since the early evening. He knew that he was going to die, either faster from hunger or faster from the flu that would destroy his body.

He had seen other vampires dying.

He asked himself if the lesions would be painful when they were about to spread over his whole body, or if they would be numb, painless like dust or ashes. He had been flayed alive…a pain that had been so excruciating no one could imagine who never went through this. When finally Aidan´s morphine had reduced the torment so far he could have been transported, the hunger had broken lose with animalistic force. Only the drug had avoided that he had gone for the girls like a raging monster, all well trained control slipped away…

When he would feed now, the hunger would subside but it wouldn´t save him. It didn´t save Atlee´s life, neither clean human blood nor clean vampire blood. Feeding would only prolong the dying, would probably make it more painful, he thought.

But deep down in his shaded mind basic instincts gnawed at him, basic instincts which urged him to feed at any prize. Fired by this crazy mix of imagination, hope and an irrational persuasion that there would be any slight chance, any way, he could survive, planted into his feverish brain by the doctor´s suggestion.

He so dearly wanted to believe her.

Believing…

…against a rational mind and experience.

Henry tried to think about it. Once he was educated as a medic, but his mind was drifting away, how often he ever tried. He couldn´t force his mind to put things together rationally. Whenever he tried, there was a little, unnerving voice that interrupted him again and again and he was drifting into a sleepy state over and over again.

He felt hands at his body. His upper body was lifted when an arm shoved behind his back and fingers peeled down his shirt. Cool air blew over his bare skin. He shivered unintentionally and then his legs were lifted and in a swift movement his jeans disappeared to be exchanged by the cool surface of the bed sheets. A slightly colored oval appeared over him and he tried to fix it with his burning eyes. A voice was vibrating in his ears, female, calm and comforting.

The doctor.

"Shhh…calm down…you´re safe here, Henry. I´m going to examine you now and at any point I´ll have to turn you over…so don´t worry…it´ll be all okay…" she said in an attempt to prevent him from any unexpected defense. He was weak…very weak, but a vampire was never really helpless and she didn´t want to be bitten probably. She was vaccinated against the flu but bite marks of any kind, made by the fangs of a fear stricken vampire didn´t tend to be discreet…

He sighed and gave in, trying to relax, but it was a simple weakness that let him lie down motionless. Hands slipped over his body, felt for his belly, his muscles, went down to the inner sides of his thighs and felt over the skin.

"Hm…I don´t know, but he feels warmer as usual a vampire does. I´m not used to your kind…" she turned to Aidan. "I have only experience with Mr. Fitzroy´s skin temperature…but I guess Henry shouldn´t be that warm now normally, Aidan! Do you ever know if you can get fever?"

"We do. Henry once had been seriously injured and near death. He was highly feverish…Josh can maybe tell you about…" Aidan seemed to be very thoughtful.

"Josh? Who is Josh?"

"My…mortal friend. He´s a nurse too and he had cared for Henry then…"

"Okay…so we´re having at least one person with some experience with it…Please bring me the thermometer from my bag, I´ll check it…" Dr. Mohadevan directed to her bag and Aidan dug through it.

Fitzroy was leaning at the opposite wall, his arms folded in front of his chest. He couldn´t keep himself from studying the body of the other vampire on the bed, out of curiosity. His view went down to the crouch, then upwards to the face that had plenty of similarities with his own. What did you expect, he asked himself. An inhuman thing, a monster? Beside the differences of the fangs, Aidan´s son looked like him, like a human, as long as he was not vamped out.

He pushed himself from the wall and came nearer to the bed.

"How is his constitution, Rajani?" Fitzroy looked down onto Henry who was obviously so weak that he had fallen asleep again despite the fact that he was amidst medical examination and practically nude.

"As far as I can see after a first check, we gonna need to get him out of her! I can´t treat a seriously sick vampire in a hotel room! We need some place of privacy." Dr. Mohadevan stated. "You once mentioned Vicki..."

"Yes...yes...maybe. Vicki would have the guts to do that!" Fitzroy scratched his chin and then he turned around and pulled his cell out of the pocket. He pressed dial and waited for Vicki to answer the call.

"Who´s Vicki?" Aidan mixed in while Fitzroy was waiting for Vicki. "Is...is that the woman who accompanied you last night?" His face got tensed.

"Yes!" Fitzroy stated with only one word. The cell woke to life. He took a deep breath and readied himself for the things to come.

A voice that sounded business like answered his call.

"Hi, Henry...you made me waiting since two and a half hour! What happened?" Vicki sounded from disappointed to slightly angry. Her tone had a layer of the old ex-cop under it.

"Uhm, I´m sorry, but something got in my way. Something I had to clear on my own..." Fitzroy started. Before he could went on Vicki cut in his word.

"Oh! A problem! Something like..._Toronto, we have a problem!_" Her voice went an octave higher and a bit louder. Fitzroy pulled the cell from his ear before her voice threatened to burst his sensitive vampire hearing.

Even Aidan could hear the outburst from the distance of his position. He stared at Fitzroy, knitted his brows and directed to his ear with a grin.

"Seems…the lady isn´t pleased with..."

Fitzroy waved downwards with his hand, indicating him to shut up.

"Since when do you do problems on your own, Henry? Will I have to remind you where that ended up last time and the time before and there before?" Vicki had just begun.

"Vic, I´m sorry that I didn´t call ya´..But I was on my way to you when I met the vampire we have met yesterday...and..." He sighed.

"Oh, you once told me...us...me and Mike, that you would solve such a vampire problem together with us. A problem called Christina and Alex! But you had to go on your own!" she shot back and her voice was angry.

"Victoria! He broke my territory! I had to interact! But that´s not the question anymore! Facts have changed rapidly."

"Tell me! You staked him right through the heart and placed him on a rooftop for barbecue! As you did with Alexander when you had finished him."

"No! I didn´t!"

"Not? What did you then? Meet and greet with him? I don´t remember you to be the cute host to others of your kind!"

Fitzroy sighed and started to walk through the room slowly. Obviously the thing became more difficult as thought about.

"If you would let me tell you without ever interrupting my every second word, Vicki! I would be able to explain to you!" This woman could be very exhausting.

"Okay, explain yourself, your royal highness!"

Fitzroy looked at the doctor, then at Aidan and shook his head, before he went on.

"Vicki! I need your help for two men who need shelter! That will meet it best, I guess..."

"Since when do you pick up homeless and asking me for giving them shelter? I´m no hotel and no homeless asylum!"

"May I...?" Dr. Mohadevan asked and when Fitzroy nodded, she took the cell from his hands.

"Hello Vicki, it´s me, Rajani! The case is the following; The vampire both of you have met yesterday has a son and this son of him is sick! Seriously sick! He has the flu and I know that you´re vaccinated, so you can´t get infected. We urgently need a place outside a hotel where I can treat him aside from public attention like in a hospital..." she brought things to one point.

"And then it came to your mind that I could be the person to share rooms with two liquid protein absorbing guys..." Vicki countered.

"It is Henry who begs for it. He called me in for help and now we need to get him out of here. Your rooms are the only option in the moment. I can´t put him into the forensics..."

"Oh, this guy still isn´t dead enough, ain´t he?" she replied.

Dr. Mohadevan grinned.

Then she became serious again; "Where are you? I mean..."

"In a boarding house at Baldwin Street. I have to get him out of here before anybody becomes suspicious. And he needs blood to regain some strength. These vampires starved since weeks!"

"You gonna know that´s dangerous, Rajani! Take care!" Vicki became concerned and she became more concerned when a deep moan came from behind, wherever behind might be. "what´s up there?"

"Gonna look, Vicki..." Dr. Mohadevan turned over to the bed and bent over Henry. She laid the cell on the nightstand beside. Her hands felt over his temple, his forehead and she found it to be warm. Too warm and sweaty. With one hand she pulled up the blanket and spread it over him again.

"Do you have any pain? Tell me!" Her voice was soft and patient and Henry moaned again. He tried to fix his eyes on her but the hunger weakened him and so his lids fell shut again. With closed eyes he mumbled; "You...promised...me food!" His voice trailing away.

"Okay, Henry, we´ll get you out of here to a safe place at a friend´s of mine! Looks like drinking isn´t an alternative for you now!"

She opened her bag and brought out a bag of blood. Henry groaned when he saw it and he would have liked to grab for it but he fell back onto the sheets. He groaned desperately.

Dr. Mohadevan took a syringe and pierced it into a vein at his arm. He hissed.

"It´s all okay...all good...I need to test your blood type. I won´t set up an i.v. without testing!" She took a test kit and mixed a few drops of the sample with blood from the bag. After waiting and watching it closely she nodded.

"Okay, it does!" with swift movements she set up an i.v. Transfusion, hung the bag from a nail at the wall and regulated the flow. "Okay...that´ll do. Try to sleep a while during it..." she stroked his temple and covered him with the blankets.

Then she turned back to the cell.

"Okay, Vicki. I´ve hung him a little meal...when it´ll be through, we will drive..."

"Uhm...Rajani...it´s okay! I thought it over. He´ll be safe at my rooms. Any which way I have to keep Mike out of here...but what for?" Vicki sighed and the click told Dr. Mohadevan that Vicki had hung up the call.

Aidan looked at her.

"Can we drive to her? Will it be safe?"

"Yeap! I know Vicki since years and she´s trustworthy!"

"Vicki? Isn´t that the woman I met yesterday? She was accompanying you!?"Aidan looked at Fitzroy. His memories of the tough woman were not the best. He had learned to know her as a possible opponent, additionally to the hostile territory owner.

"She is!" Fitzroy answered shortly. His voice cold. "I guess you have no other chance, Aidan. Or you would rather like to bring him to a hospital! I´m excited to know what they would do with you, discovering you and him to be vampires when they gonna test for his blood!" His voice was dripping with cynicism."You will have to live with the fact or forget about!"

"Henry...how can you expect him to be ticklish when yesterday you told them to be killed off if they won´t leave?" Dr. Mohadevan whispered into Fitzroy´s ear.

"I changed my opinion...is this that strange, Rajani? Even I can think over decisions made before and that does not mean I can´t change my mind!"

"You made friends with L.A. Vampires!"

"Those aren´t in for my territory, that´s a difference. They..." he directed to Aidan and Henry; "...came in for hunting among my sources! That IS a difference! I had to care for it first!" Only the respect for the woman he trusted to since he had met Vicki, kept him away from handling her like a person of nether ranking. Like his father would have done.

"And what is it that made your mind changing? If you forgive me my insistence!" she looked at him, saw the play of discrepancy and doubt on his face. Fitzroy had a face one could read in it like in an open book. He was hiding nothing even though he had to hide his true nature in front of unknowing mortals.

There were only a few mortals he trusted to, the less he trusted with his life to!

Fitzroy hesitated for a moment, then he sighed quietly. Finally he nodded and looked into her fawn brown eyes. His voice was all calm and thoughtful, with no hint of compelling, when he answered.

"I never had a son...At least none I know of...and when I heard that Aidan came over here to protect himself and his son from a deadly epidemic...I learned to understand what his true intentions are. He loves him! Especially when I know that I won´t be able to share my eternity with my own progeny. We won´t be able to stay together any longer than a year, sometimes less...So..." Fitzroy swallowed hard.

Dr. Mohadevan laid her hand onto his wrist and he didn´t shake it off.

"I think we should move over soon..." he said when he looked over to the bed where Aidan´s son was crouched under the blankets and the blood was slowly running down the slim tube into his arm. "How long would that need?" he directed to the i.v. set.

"Approximately an hour...I hope it´ll strengthen him a bit, at least that we will get him out of here, without this guy downstairs rising any suspect..." She stepped over to the bed, grabbed Henry´s wrist and felt for a pulse.

These vampires were of another species than Henry Fitzroy and she didn´t even know if they had anything equal to a pulse. They had a physical body in difference to a ghost. They were alive, no moving animated corpses like a zombie. They were breathing and that meant that their bodies needed oxygen for some purpose.

Normally.

A new coughing fit shook his body and Henry groaned under it. Dr. Mohadevan let go his wrist and helped him to turn around to his right side, rearranging the tube of the blood transfusion. Aidan´s son fought for breath and she crouched beside the bed, just to be on his level and her hand stroked his temple to calm him down.

His eyes were bled black and he tried to focus on her face.

"Shhh...it´s all good, Henry...Don´t do that! Try to breathe calmly...yeah, slowly...slowly... yeah! That´ll be much better..." Her voice was low and soft. His breath was calming down when the fit subsided. "Is there any pain?"

"Hur...hurts...all over..." he moaned, his eyelids halfway down from exhaustion.

"What exactly hurts...? Tell me, Henry!"

"Chest...muscles...all over..."

"Okay. Does this hurt...?" she carefully stroked along his arms, over his skin. He hissed under his breath and he was shivering.

He closed his eyes once, a barely audible Yes.

Dr. Mohadeven nodded to Aidan who had come to the bedside. His look was full of concern, at the edge to...call it fear. Fear for his son. She turned her head and looked up to him.

How? The unspoken question stood written in his face.

"He has typical...uhm, human symptoms of a flu. Pain in the muscles, his skin feels sore due to a nerve´s hypersensitiveness and he´s shivering...I should test for his temperature even if I don´t know what your normal temperature is..." she sounded a bit uncertain. She knew Henry Fitzroy´s body temperature to be lower than that of a human...around 90 °F.

"What...?" Henry mumbled.

"Your temperature! I´ll check for it!" she explained to him while she dug through her bag and came up with a thermometer. It was one of those slim modern thermometers Aidan knew from the hospital.

"I guess I need a reference for his..." she smiled at Aidan; "I´m sorry but..."

"You mean...uhm, I´m gonna...you´re gonna check mine?" Aidan looked at her.

Dr. Mohadevan nodded; "I have…medical...experience with Henry Fitzroy...but I´m sorry, I lack of it when it comes to your kind. So I´m gonna need you as a reference for your son! So please give me a helping hand and I´ll place this thermometer under your tongue and ehm..." she began.

He took the thermometer from her hand before she could go on.

"I know how to do this! I work in a hospital...as a nurse!"

She looked at him, her eyes widened a bit. He didn´t want to offend her and so he added, his voice softer; "I meant...I´ll do this for you...no problem." he tried to soften his answer before. He didn´t intend to be rude to her but he was so nervous and afraid for his son. His nerves were on the edge.

Aidan took the thermometer under his tongue, sat don on the edge of the bed and waited. He caught Fitzroy´s look and chewing on the slim thing in his mouth, he mumbled;

"What? Never seen a check up?"

Fitzroy shook his head and turned to the window.

After a short moment the thermometer gave a beep and he pulled it out of his mouth.

"89° F..." he stated after a view on the display.

"Okay. Thank you, Aidan. Did you ever do this before...on yourself, I mean...?" she smiled while she pulled a new cover over the tip.

"On me? No? Never felt the intention to check myself…"

"Ouh...okay..."

Dr. Mohadevan turned back to Henry.

"Henry...I´ll shove this..." she showed him the thermometer; "under your tongue. Simply stay calm! Don´t bite on it...okay? Do you understand me, Henry...? It´ll take only half a minute...and you better get used to it because we´ll have to do this repeatedly over the next time..."

The grunting sound that came from him showed her that Henry was half asleep and barely receptive to her anymore. She carefully placed the thermometer under his tongue and, against normal case, she kept hold of it. For sure he wasn´t used to it and if he was in a fever..."

Henry didn´t react to her, he was simply lying on his right side, his eyes closed.

She stroked over his forehead, over his temple with the tousled curls.

"It´s okay...you´re doing this perfectly...it´ll be over in a few moments..."

His skin seemed to be warm. Warmer in relation to Aidan´s 89° F...

Henry felt something shoved between his lips, under his tongue. A slim thing of plastic. It didn´t hurt and a hand was comforting his head, like one who was about to calm a child. But it felt good. His nose caught the scent of warm human skin. A promise of blood, of food.

But human blood had become a threat.

He felt dizzy and tired beyond everything he had known since the very moment when Aidan took his blood, his life...back in 1918 when he was going to turn him. Drink from me and you´ll live forever! Chorus girls and steaks... The brat princess. Drink! I won´t let you die, Henry...

Won´t let you die. Won´t let you die.

Aidan´s voice pounded in his mind, his heart, his very self.

Won´t let you die...

His eyes fell shut and he was slipping into the realms of sleep. The words in his mind trailed away like a subsiding echo. And he didn´t feel it anymore when, after half a minute, Dr. Mohadevan pulled out the thermometer.

"And? How much?" Aidan sounded nervously.

"98° F...I guess Henry is in a high risen fever if some 89° F is the normal level...His constitution, his shaded receptiveness would fit into it...His body seems to try to fight it..at least trying!"

"But all...I mean...how can you..." He softly grabbed her arm, pulling her carefully away from the bedside. He had to be aware of his greater strength not to hurt her. "I mean...I only know that all vampires, once infected, die from the flu! How can you be certain that he has such a thing like fever? That his body..." his voice trembled; "That his body tries to fight it. Maybe it´s only an effect of the damn virus, no healing...fever..." He swallowed hard on the knot in his throat.

"I´m certain of nothing, Aidan. I only see and I only can relate it to what I know commonly. I have..and this is a fortune for you...some experience with how a vampire´s body works...but only from Henry Fitzroy. What do you think how large is your chance to meet any human being, who has any experience with you, other than how it feels to be bitten and his blood being sucked? The chance tends against one to ten millions, if any... Only coincidence leaded you over here to Toronto and into him..." she directed to Fitzroy who had come back from the window.

"How is he? What did you find out, Rajani?" Fitzroy´s voice was full of concern and he looked at Aidan.

"Looks like his body goes into a kind of fever, like you did when you were hurt..."

"Yes, but my immune system can cope with these infections. Henry´s obviously not...I don´t know if it´s a good sign. He seems to be very weakened by the fact that he was starving since weeks. Aren´t it, Aidan?" he looked into the face of the other vampire and there was the expression of unshaded fear. More than concern. Worse.

God, he must really love him! Not simply being supporting him as his progeny, he thought when he looked into the darkening eyes. He stepped nearer to Aidan who watched him warily but didn´t step back from him.

Fitzroy had no intention to go into a verbal fight again, did not want to offend him.

They needed a kind of steady state as long as the doctor would try to save his son´s life. Normally Aidan should know by now that I won´t fight them, should know it by the fact that I offered some help in the person of Dr. Mohadevan, instead of killing them right away.

It would have been a simple thing to beat up two weakened vampires. One night and he would have finished it like he had finished fortuneless Alexander.

Aidan fixed the face in front of him. He tried not to show any fear or uncertainty in front of an opponent. He was waiting for the things to come. Any verbal attack, any insult, anything...

But there was none to come.

Aidan concentrated on Fitzroy. By now he could need no distraction, even when sounds from the bed threatened to need his attention.

Don´t let distract you now! The doctor would care for it! He demanded to himself. He felt still uncertain enough about Fitzroy´s sudden change of mind. After his more than hostile reaction to him and his son, he had strong doubts about what the other vampire was planning.

Could he trust him or was it to be some trick to get rid of them later, at any occasion, Fitzroy would be able to take advantage of?

Aidan readied himself for a new confrontation.

He felt split from inside. Fitzroy had confronted him in best werewolf manner but for the difference that he was a vampire. Had made a deal with him under the pressure that, if they won´t leave within the time, he would go to hunt him down like a damn rat.

And then he had confronted him with the fact that he was to give up too early. Had announced his desperation as weakness, had provoked him by accusing him not to care for the one he loves most!

And this had been the worst of all. Accusing him for turning his back on Henry, now, that it all had seemed to become useless.

His mind was leaded by desperation now.

And desperation, as fear, was the worst counselor.

With an uncertain counterpart in front of him and the moans and groans from behind, Aidan didn´t know how to react now exactly. The situation was on the edge and going into a verbal or physical fight now, would have been by far the simpler thing in the moment.

Fitzroy could feel the discrepancy in Aidan, heard his heart beating fast and hard. But he was determined not to give Aidan any opportunity to make use of it. He saw the nervousness and tension behind Aidan´s face. How much he ever tried to hide it; Fitzroy was much older than him and by experience able to read in vampire´s as well as in human, mortal, faces.

And Aidan´s face was hiding nothing right now.

Fitzroy wanted to solve the situation for him. Aidan should relax to get him down to a level where reasonable talking was possible without going into a dispute again. He could understand that Aidan felt like hanging from a burning rope, dangling over a pit deep abyss.

With his calmest expression he was capable himself in the moment, he directed over to the two chairs under the window which were added by a small table. This room really wasn´t designed to become a sickroom.

"Please, Aidan…let us sit down…I want to talk to you for good…"

Aidan followed his invitation only very hesitant. But he sat down, not without before shooting a look over to the bed where Dr. Mohadevan was at Henry´s side. Henry was moaning in his doze and she bent over him, wiping over his forehead with a cold wash cloth. She turned her face to him.

"Henry is uneasy…but it´s okay, Aidan. I´ll stay with him…" she answered his unspoken question and he sighed and turned his attention onto Fitzroy finally. Fitzroy had waited for him patiently.

"You for sure asked yourself why you´re in this situation yet, Aidan. Now…I have changed my mind. I did this not out of my…uhm…function and dedicated right as the owner of my territory, but because I have seen how deep your feelings are…You love your son…your childe, and for him you had gone to lengths, even if it meant to risk strong trouble that could endanger your life…"

"I don´t know all this…territory thing of yours. Maybe because you and I are different. Dunno better as to call it this way! As I told you last night; we came over here to search shelter from the flu. Either me nor Henry had ever heard that Toronto has a kind of sovereign…that here lives any vampire who declares a whole city his property! We simply…aren't used to it! We were living in Boston with…what it´ll hit it best…a community structure. We had leaders, but they are dead now, died from the flu. Most of the vampires I or Henry has known, are dead yet…"

Fitzroy nodded to make clear he had understood what Aidan meant, to make clear he knew that Aidan´s intention wasn´t to go for a territory but simple surviving.

Surviving, even when it meant to run on basic and rather animalistic instincts, was a concept he knew all too well, out of own experience. He had no doubt that the vampire on the other side of the table was telling the truth.

"Your community or group is ruling the East coast…at least the northeastern states of the U.S."

"Where do you know from…?" Aidan sounded astonished. Where got this vampire his information from?

"Have you ever heard of a family arranging the matters of vampires like me or others who own a territory, Aidan?"

"No! We had our own structure, our leaders and their vampire politics. Because we were living in a group we never have cared about any other lone riders of the night!" He sighed. "As long as it didn´t endanger our secrecy and security."

The orphans. Suren hadn´t been able to solve the orphan problem and it had stuck to Aidan to mop up behind her before Mother came.

"We are indeed kind of different from each other. In this world it seems to be that there are different…species, as Dr. Mohadevan would call it…I know a community like thing as yours from the West coast…I have friends…vampires…in L.A. who are totally different from me or you. They can walk in the sunlight. For sure you would find them interesting. Obviously…whatever first had set up us, found it interesting enough to spread evolution among its creatures…." Fitzroy stopped, sighed before he went on; "…I guess we aren´t so far from God as was believed by the mortals. I, for my part have kept my strong believing as I had been rised to in the 16th century. And the forces of God are strong when it comes to fight the evil side…"

Fitzroy´s finger went under the neckline of his red hoodie sweater and he pulled up a leather necklace. When he opened his palm to Aidan, there was a small cross, obviously made of silver and with a small ruby in its center.

"Is this…silver?" it slipped from Aidan´s lips. He sounded surprised.

"Yes. And it is almost two hundred years old…" Fitzroy smiled.

"So you don´t have any…uhm…allergic problems with it?" Aidan began carefully. To dive into a vampire´s specific sensitivity could be risky, at least offending.

"I don´t. And I also don´t have problems with iron or with silver bullets. As you may ask; I can get wounded like everybody else, but we heal way faster…as long as I can drink enough blood. Silver has no specific…" And Fitzroy couldn´t hide a slight smiling; "…anti-vampire effect on me!"

" I see…but…may I look at these…?" Aidan directed to the leather necklace with the leathery dog-tags Fitzroy had pulled up under his sweater together with the cross. The engravings on them were very familiar to Aidan.

Fitzroy nodded; "Of course…" he took the pendants from his neck and reached them to Aidan.

Aidan gasped and stared at the letters.

"It...this is British…I mean…you had been in World War one and two…?"

"Yes. Both of the wars. I fought in the Netherlands, the Dutch resistance against the German occupation in WW2. For the British secret service… The other one is from WW1…" Fitzroy explained when Aidan studied the dog tags more closely.

"You must have been wounded for sure…" he mumbled.

"More than once, Aidan…But as I mentioned before, we heal very fast…"

_The gunfire and the howling and thundering of exploding shrapnel and artillery shells let the air vibrate. The screams and shouting of soldiers, the orders shouted over the pounding noise of the battlefield were mixing in his ears. Dust and dirt was flying around and men stumbled over each other, their guns aiming to the other side. The shaking of the stretcher grew worse when a new attack made the medics diving for shelter in the next trench. He screamed but his voice went under in the ear bursting crescendo of the battle. Gray material, a slim line, rushed through over him when the noises subsided inside a large tent, made of framing and tent walls. Aidan´s stretcher was shoved onto a large table and he fought for breath, at the edge of losing consciousness. He had lost a large amount of blood. Far more than one could call healthy. He was bleeding from at least half a dozen gunshot wounds and a medic said: "I wonder he´s still alive. If never before seen one man taking a whole trench all on his own…" The voices disappeared and a few moments later another medic appeared at his side. He bent over him and his hands went carefully for Aidan´s left leg._

_"__Let´s see what we have here…" His voice was friendly despite the stress he has to be in. The primitive military field hospital was overcrowded and Aidan heard a mix of English and French. He clenched his teeth when the medic pulled back the split material of his pants that stuck to the skin, soaked with blood._

_"__Uoh.." The medic was a rather young guy, wearing glasses when he bent over the leg, inspecting the damage before he turned over to a small surgeon´s table. His hand went for a syringe with morphine when a doctor took it from his hands._

_"__He will be dead by morning and we don´t waste morphine on a dying man…" The doctor disappeared into another section of the tent._

_"__Get the bullets out! Get it out!" Aidan hissed and the medic looked at him, his face full of concern. He nodded and turned around, closed the seams of the tent wall. Then he helped Aidan who opened his belt, pulled it from his pants and gave it him. Aidan folded the thick leather to a double layer, shoved it between his teeth and nodded shortly, preparing himself for the pain when the bullets would be removed…_

"Aidan?" Fitzroy´s calm but asking voice brought Aidan back into the here and now. He shook his head and smiled slightly.

"Memories…" he mumbled.

Fitzroy nodded; "Sometimes even we can get haunted by our memories…" he sounded thoughtful.

There was a moment of silence between them and the only sounds were the breath of the vampire that came from the bed and the heartbeat which sounded through the room.

Fitzroy cleared his throat and looked over to the bed, then back to Aidan who seemed to relax a bit.

"Well…now, about your son Henry; We´ll drive over to my partner Vicki and she offers a room for him where Dr. Mohadevan can care for him. It´s a safe place and you can stay there as long as necessary. Vicki will give you shelter for the time…" Fitzroy explained.

"For…I mean…for both of us?" Aidan´s voice was full of concern and Fitzroy understood that Aidan wouldn´t want to be separated from his son, yet, when he needed him most of all. His current constitution was worse than yesterday and in the moment it won´t be sure if Henry would have a chance; if any…

"Yes! I think you´ll stay with Henry now… It won´t make any sense if you stay here in the hotel and you would switch back and forth between Vicki and the hotel…"

"I won´t need much…!" Aidan added it fast, just to verify that he would be satisfied with the option to stay with Henry. He had survived in a narrow box for about 15 months and to have shelter…and food…at anybody´s home won´t be that worse.

"That´s okay, Aidan…you won´t have to sleep in a coffin at her´s…" Fitzroy smiled. His own memories of being locked in a wooden box for three days after his turning still now drove a cold shower down his spine. When he saw Aidan´s facial expression he added; "Sorry, but I have been sealed in a coffin for three days and nights after I had been turned. Before my maker dug me up…"

"Nothing at all! I recently have been locked in a damn coffin for 15 months…"

Fitzroy needed a moment before he got it, what Aidan had said. Listening carelessly he had gotten some 15 days…a time his mind cringed at the imagination of a time five times his own. Then it made click click click.

Months.

Not days!

"Months?! Oh my God!" he gasped and Aidan got the impression of a suddenly much paler Fitzroy. "Hopefully you haven´t done this out of free will…"

"No! As I said…I have been locked in by my adversaries." Aidan sounded really pissed off.

"But you must have been starving terribly…over such a long time…"

Aidan nodded; "The first time it grew worse and worse with every day, every hour. You´re gonna losing any feeling for time…days are melting into weeks and finally the body goes…I can only call this a shut down mode…into a stupor of weakness, drowsiness and absolute phlegm, indifference…any time the pain subsides into a feeling of absolute emptiness. You´re gonna give up hope to get out eventually…"

He shuddered.

His view became hollow and he turned his head to the window, trying to escape Fitzroy´s eyes which were watching him with slight concern. He had seen vampires going mad finally by any reasons…

Aidan rose from the chair and with eyes half closed he staggered over to the bedside, his hand fixed against the wall, he looked over Dr. Mohadevan´s shoulder and found Henry in a state of being halfway awake.

Aidan´s eyes trailed along the slim tube, up to the hook at the wall where the bag with blood was hanging.

"Are you…uhm…" hungry was a word too hard, she thought. But what for? These vampires were starving badly. No wonder if even Aidan would need more blood. And let it be only to enable him to have more control when they would drive over to Vicki.

No way, that he would straightly go for Vicki´s throat or wrist!

"Do you feel the urge to feed more, Aidan? I have bags enough, now that I know which blood type I need for Henry for transfusions. There are free bags for you…" She looked right into these darkening eyes, sure she would be able to read in a vampires eyes since she had experience enough with them.

He looked down to her, licked his lip nervously before he dared to answer.

"I would like to get another one, if…if possible. We had no access to clean and safe blood for weeks…I´m so sorry, Dr.!"

"You don´t have to excuse yourself or the needs of Henry. Just tell me what you need and I´ll care for it. I have kinda unlimited access to it because the forensics have an extra budget for scientific and criminological reasons. Out of reason I can order whatever I or the laboratory needs…that´s some benefit.

"Thank you so much, Dr.!"

"It´s okay…it´s all okay as long things are not running out of the track…" Dr. Mohadevan laid her hand onto his lower arm.

Aidan kept silent for a moment, finally he nodded.

Dr. Mohadevan tilted her head to the side, indicating the large sports-bag and the cooling unit beside it.

"Take what you need, Aidan…"

He bent down, opened the box and took himself an additional bag, simply crouching down at the wall where he was.

"How long will it take by now…?" he checked the bag at the wall, over Henry´s head.

"A few minutes only. Henry should feel better by now, at least when it comes to hunger.

"Okay…"

Aidan fought the urge to simply bite through the plastic material of the blood bag. Getting him a cup and warming it up in a microwave was out of the discussion under these circumstances. He was not at home where Josh was used to it, despite the fact that Josh would get angry if the micro looked like slaughterhouse five after it.

Carefully he tore at the adapter until the material broke and then he shoved the slim tube between his lips, sucking up the blood. His eyes were fixed on the doctor, expecting her to bite his butt but she only looked at him and then turned back to Henry.

Henry barely managed it to open his eyes to narrow slits when a warm and soft hand cupped his temple and his forehead.

"Hmm…how do you feel? Less hungry at least, Henry…?"

"All…hurts…" he mumbled weakly. He tried to turn his head to the side to fix the face above him. His lips felt dry like sand and he shoved his tongue forward, licking over his upper lip. He gasped and his fingers grabbed for the warm wrist, felt the wave of the pulse speeding up unintentionally when his fingers closed around it. He lacked of strength and so it was not him who pulled her down to him, but Henry tried to take a hold, clinging to her and tried to pull himself up. He clenched his teeth, hissed and Dr. Mohadevan felt how his fingers pressed into her wrist, his nails digging into the skin.

"Ssshhh…careful…uuuh…okay. It´s okay Henry, let me help you…"

Fast she shoved her free arm under his shoulders, lifting him up until his head was resting in the crook of her arm. "It´s all good…hm…"

"Wa…want…" Henry gasped desperately.

"What do you want? Tell me…" she said, her voice was soft and patiently.

"Want…drink…!" he gasped.

Aidan stood up, let his bag drop and even Fitzroy was moving nearer, ready to come for help when he heard Henry. He won´t allow it that this vampire would harm Rajani.

But the doctor stayed rather calm. Either she wasn´t aware of the potential danger or she…

Aidan was at the bed within the blink of an eye, his voice demanding and determined.

"No, Henry! There will be NO feeding on her! Despite her blood being clean: NO!" Aidan stared at Henry, whose eyes had turned black, his fangs extended.

Dr. Mohadevan felt Henry shivering in her arm and she looked right into his black eyes. He let out a moan and licked over his lips, his fingers digging helplessly into her wrist when he tried to steady himself.

"Wa…wa…"

"No!" Aidan demanded.

Henry stared into the face of his father, maker and friend.

"Want…water! Need. Water." He brought out desperately.

An expression of relief stole over her face and over that of Aidan and finally over Fitzroy´s and Aidan let out a breath remarkably when the tension vanished. Henry´s head fell back a bit and he closed his eyes. Dr. Mohadevan turned her face to Fitzroy;

"He lacks of water, rather liquid. The rising temperature dries him out additionally. Please get me a glass of water, Henry! I guess…when we are at Vicki, I should supply him additionally with an i.v. of Ringer…"

Fitzroy turned around and she heard him collecting a glass from a small cupboard. Then the sound of water running into the sink and a moment later he reached her a glass. She brought it at Henry´s lips.

"Come on…drink…you must be thirsty from the fever…Later, when you are at Vicki´s home, I´ll get you more liquid substitution…" Carefully she poured one sip between his lips and his Adam´s-apple jumped hard when he swallowed it. Henry moaned when the cool liquid ran down his throat. Moaning, swallowing, moaning…

The hand in his neck was rather cool now when it was supporting his head for drinking. His head felt like lolling without any strength from one side to the other and when he tried to fix his eyes on any part in the room, the whole room seemed to faint behind a curtain of fog.

The doctor and Fitzroy had been talking about getting him out of here…

The question was…what the heck…he had doubts that he would be able to walk out on his own legs. Never before he has felt so weak but when Suren almost killed him…

Henry groaned deeply. The cold water burned its way down his throat, the first sips made him almost cry from pain. He squeezed his eyelids to avoid tears rolling down his cheeks; bloody tears.

Generally he knew the symptoms of flu on humans but he had never guessed to go through it ever again after he was turned. Sickness was an unimaginable task on a vampire´s sight of world.

A thumb moved over his cheek, the tip wiping over it. Henry gasped and the glass was taken beside,

"Slowly…slowly…it´s okay…go on slowly, Henry…I don´t want to have you start choking on it.

"It…burns…"

"In the throat? Does it hurt when you swallow?" he heard her calm voice.

"Yes…."

"Uh. I never thought you to get into something like that…with all these friggin symptoms of a flu down to a sore throat…"

"Gonna die…" he whispered. "Gonna…die…" his voice weak and resigned.

But he addressed his plea to the wrong person obviously, because Dr. Mohadevan countered, her voice determined; "You´ll not gonna die! Not here and not now! Not as long as I won´t allow it!"

She looked into his face, the blackened and strangely glittering eyes. They looked so equal to the feverish film human beings were showing in a fever. Her hand went for his pulse point, his forehead.

Whatever Henry may state, whatever the legends are saying…he´s definitely in a feverish state! No doubt. It´s kinda interesting, against all common odds about vampires…but what for? I have sworn to myself that I´ll be open for just everything as long as it comes along with science or not. There will be an explanation to this, even if we don´t understand just now. Medieval age didn´t have the slightest clue about sickness, due to the fact there were no scientist researching for it by religious reasons…, she thought to herself.

"We don´t give up, Henry! And I want you to cling to your very life with your very will! This crap is a common disease and I won´t give up until I find a cure for it. You are a patient for me and by this it doesn´t matter if human or vampire, Henry! Cuz I´m the doctor here…mostly my clients don´t complain about pain in the forensics but you can because you´re alive! So don´t hide anything from me…I have to know everything!"

She looked in Henry´s face, then she lifted her head and turned it to Fitzroy who was waiting behind her. Another look upwards showed her that the bag on the i.v. set was empty now.

"Okay. Through." She turned to Fitzroy again. "Henry…we can drive now…Can you please call Vicki and tell her that we are on our way to her…she please shall prepare a single room with a bed. I´ll probably need access to the kitchen…I hope she owns a large table…just if it´ll become necessary…" she spoke out her thoughts loudly.

Fitzroy looked at her with knitted brows;

"Large table? There is one in her living room. But what for would you need it? Are you going to do any…surgery…on him?" He sounded slightly astonished, a rare effect.

"No, not necessarily. Just in case we´re coming to some point where a table would do better than a bed…" she answered. Her voice stayed onto the same level.

Fitzroy waved a hand; "You mean…if you are going to…" his voice went down to a whisper; "…are going to examine his…corpse…"

So low his voice had been, Aidan heard the words anyway.

"There won´t be any…corpse to examine if Henry dies!" he whispered sharply, half under his breath. "We turn to dust the moment we die! Unless you want to examine ashes, Dr."

She smiled slightly; "I usually examine even ashes for their contents. As for the content of iron for example, because it tells me if my client died by bleeding out before he was burned up! I guess, you don´t imagine what murders are doing in an attempt to hide the true circumstances of death! There´s always a border to cross! I am a forensic examiner! I have seen a lot in my working time, Aidan!"

"I can imagine a lot!" Aidan stated.

Of course! You´re a vampire and sometimes even usually controlled feeding goes fatally wrong, she thought. When one goes to mix up with these beings, you end up with the need to cope with the darker sides of their existence…

But that made no difference to the darker sides of normal human beings.

She looked at Aidan, her face calm. She knew pretty well under which pressure Aidan was standing. His feelings for the younger vampire must be really strong, she thought. Obviously their connection was deeper than imagined. Henry Fitzroy may not have gone through something equal...at least when it came to another vampire, because he was utterly territorial. His only short lived connection to another vampire had been Christina, the vampiress who had turned him out of love. But they separated after less than a year.

Henry´s only deeper and maybe long lasting connection, relationship, was with Vicki...but she was human, mortal.

To relax the situation she watched over to the small closet at the sidewall.

"Aidan...we will drive now. It´s not so far away but I doubt that Henry is in the constitution to walk over there...Can you please get him some clean dressing...? Vicki has no men´s wear at home. Only a few belongings from Mike, but he´s taller than him and I think he would freak out when someone uses his things...", she grinned and Aidan nodded.

"We will have to get Henry out of here without rising any suspect..." Aidan threw in. He thought back at the all too curious owner of the boarding home. Mr. Smith wasn´t easy to handle.

Henry Fitzroy looked up from his cell phone when he had been about to call Vicki.

"No such problem...you should be able to make him forget what he had seen..." Fitzroy replied. He saw Aidan knitting his brows and there was a hint of uncertainty; "Ain´t you?"

Aidan thought back to the moment when he had tried to compel the officer into believing that he had not murdered the man´s father. No simple thing and it had ended up with the man committing suicide...

No good time to tell Fitzroy that compelling was not his best skill. Bishop had always complained about his lacking ability. Even Henry was better at it. Keeping this young woman, Emma, over weeks under his...control and influence...Respect, he thought. But Fitzroy needed his attention now. To lead away from the theme, he went over to the closet, opened it and searched through it, grabbed a large bag from the ground and stuffed everything into it. He heaved the bag over to the side and nodded.

"I´m ready so far..." He came over to the bedside with a jeans, a shirt and a hoodie sweater for Henry.

Dr. Mohadevan unlocked the i.v. set from Henry´s arm and bent over Henry in an attempt to get his attention.

"Henry...you have to get dressed up. We´ll drive over now to my friend where you´ll be safe. Do you feel able to walk out? We´ll have to pass this owner at his desk and it´ll be not good to see you all too sick..."

"Maybe better we repeat the drunken-sailor-game...It had worked out pretty well with the good Greg!" Fitzroy suggested with a smile when he looked at Henry who was more than drowsy.

"Drunken-sailor-game? I´m not in the mood to play!" Aidan sounded angrily.

"It´s no game! To hide his real constitution, we´ll get him in between us, pretending him to be drunk up to the cortex! Not so nice but the best way to hide his inability to walk out on his own legs. Or do you want Mr. Smith to know that Henry is seriously sick and probably infectious. This owner is overly mistrustful..." Fitzroy took the clothes from Aidan, ready to help Dr. Mohadevan with them.

Henry stared at her, forcing his eyes to stay open.

"Can...can you...help me?" She heard from his voice that he felt somewhat ashamed about his weakness.

"Don´t worry, Henry...we´ll help you with all. And it´s not so far from here...only a few minutes by car. We have a room for you and a bed...you can sleep again when we´ll be there, no problem..."

"Okay...I...I´m so sorry..." Henry mumbled; "...won´t be of much help...I...feel so...tired..."

"It´s okay, Henry...", she turned to Fitzroy; "Does Vicki have everything ready for us?"

"Yes...she´s waiting. Guess it´ll be some surprise...even for her...to see who we get here..." he smiled slightly, referring to the fact that Vicki was used to the most uncommon things since she had hooked up with him.

"I only hope that Mike will keep off. Learning to know that additionally to you the city has two more vampires...I remember all too well his reaction to the _conference thing_ last time. He would be afraid of more quarreling. Lady Christina wasn´t in the best mood when she came and finally left, leaving back a heap of anger and ashes..." she indicated the fact that Fitzroy had to cope with it, solving the problem for Christina with clenched teeth.

Mike still wasn´t fond of vampires. Accepting Henry Fitzroy was at the border. More than one of them made him not only warily but warlike. Especially when Henry was responsive for it. Obviously...

"I won´t like to discuss this with him again. Mike is a good cop, of course, but his acceptance of the unusual needs definitely some improvement..." Fitzroy added and peeled back the blankets that covered Henry. Dr. Mohadevan was at his side and she helped him to sit up and turn over to the edge of the bed.

Henry gasped when a wave of dizziness seemed to swash over him. The face in front of him became a fogged oval and in reflex he clung for a hold to steady himself. She saw it in his eyes. Her hand went into his neck to stabilize his head.

"Ssshh...slowly...I got you...you shouldn´t rise too fast..." her voice was soft and calm and she waited until his view became more steady.

Okay, circulation problems, she thought. He will need a lot more of blood..."

Fitzroy reached her Henry´s clothes and she helped him to slip into the shirt, the hoodie and to pull on the jeans. Dr. Mohadevan crouched in front of Henry, looked into his face.

"Are you okay? Feel steady to stand up and leave?"

Henry nodded weakly.

"Okay..." she turned and looked at Aidan. "Are you ready too? I have to get my bag and it´ll the best if you get your car in front of the house...We put him on the back seat and I drive with you to show you the way. Henry..." she directed to Fitzroy; "...will follow us in his Jag. It´s only a short distance from here to Vicki..."

A few minutes later the group left the room and Aidan locked the door. Fitzroy and Dr. Mohadevan had taken Henry in the middle, his arms put over their shoulders. With much effort he managed step by step and she felt his breath in her hair.

"Uoh, it´s going to be more dragging than walking by you..." she mumbled when they supported him in direction of the elevator. Aidan pressed the button and when the doors opened with a dong, Dr. Mohadevan and Fitzroy maneuvered him into the cabin. The doors closed and the elevator started downwards.

"We have to pass Mr. Smith! Keep yourself a bit upright, Henry!" Fitzroy whispered in his ear; "If there will be difficulties with him, let it to me! Don´t do anything but acting like you´re drunk...we´ll do the rest! Got it?"

"Yup..."

Fitzroy had strong doubts that Henry would be strong enough to compel an all too warily Mr. Smith into forgetting what he saw. With his free hand he pulled the hood over Henry´s head;

"Dont look up! He has not to see your face..." What might be no difficulty because Henry felt too weak to lift his head. He was simply hanging on Dr. Mohadevan and Fitzroy.

When they passed the reception desk Mr. Smith turned around and looked up from his newspaper.

"Hi guys...gonna get some fun on a party?" he began when he saw the man hanging between the doctor and Fitzroy. "But looks like your friend has his drain full!" He grinned.

"Yup! My friend tried to warm up a bit but he underestimated his capacities a bit..." Dr. Mohadevan answered and grinned.

Aidan waved the trio to move on when he turned to the owner.

"We´re gonna leave. Get me my bill please..."

"But you hired for more days, Mr. Waite..." Mr. Smith protested. When the tenants were leaving he would have a loss. In the moment there weren´t not much guests.

"I changed my mind, Mr. Smith! And my friend invited us to stay at his house, so we don´t have any further need for your room. How much?!" Aidan´s voice became more demanding and determined.

Time to get out of here before Mr. Smith would ask more unpleasant questions.

Showing a sour face Mr. Smith typed something into his laptop. Then he put a bill onto the counter.

"Two nights, two persons. 180 bucks, Mr. Waite." His face went stone. His voice all cool and business like. Guests who left prematurely were always an annoyance.

Aidan paid and followed the trio outside.

He reached the three who were waiting for him.

"Get us the car please, fast..." the doctor begged. She looked into Henry´s face under the hood. "Won´t take too long now...the bed is waiting for you, Henry..." Her hand felt for his forehead what confirmed to her that they should get that over fast.

Henry barely got it when he was placed on the backseat of Aidan´s car. The door beside him was closed and the doctor slipped into the passenger´s seat beside Aidan. The motor started and with a soft jar the car drove into the street. He heard the doctor giving directions to Aidan where to drive. Lights and corners went by in a whoosh but Henry barely gave them any attention. He was sunken back in his seat, fixed by the security belt, his eyes half closed. The sounds reached his ears but he gave himself over to his drowsiness, gliding into a doze.

tbc


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

**Nelson Investigations - Huron Street**

A hand softly shook his shoulder and cool air came in, streamed over the left side of his face when the doctor opened the passenger´s door and bent into the car. She bent over him, her hands going for the belt and opening the lock.

"Here we are...time to get you outta here and in over there..." her thumb directed to a door in the front of the house. "Will you make it over there, Henry? We don´t want to raise any attention..."

After a closer look into his face and his half closed eyes she came to the decision that they would have to drag him in like they had dragged him out of the boarding house.

"Okay…then...make yourself useful and give me some help, Henry..." She grabbed under his shoulder and helped him out of Aidan´s car, handling him over to Aidan who supported him to the door.

At the front of the house was a metal tag.

_Vicki Nelson Investigations- Suite 206_

"Where?" Aidan asked while he kept an unsteady Henry upright.

"Second floor. Nelson Investigations..."

Aidan stared at her, his face showing his surprise.

"Nelson..Investigations? Investigations? What the heck?"

Had they been lured in a trap? He had been lured in a trap before by traitorous Tracey who had straightly send him into a group of werewolves who were only waiting for another vampire to become their helpless prey, ready for the kill, just for…sports, as Henry had so eloquently put it when he had brought Aidan home to Emma.

Oh my goodness! Poor Emma…

"Yeap. Vicki runs an investigation office. She´s a private detective. Upstairs are her office and her home..." Dr. Mohadevan explained but it didn´t make things better obviously.

"A private dick!" Aidan moaned. He repositioned Henry´s weight at his shoulder and the doctor opened the door and they disappeared into the hall way. Fitzroy slipped in and stepped upstairs in front of them. Dr. Mohadevan followed them.

Henry made it upstairs with Aidan at his side. The surroundings were covered with a thin layer of fog when he tried to fix any point of the nearby walls. Henry couldn´t remember that the doctor or Aidan had shot him any medication unless there had been added anything to the blood before she had set up the transfusion on him. His legs felt unsteady and his head was humming with the streaming of his own blood. He moaned slightly and for a moment Aidan looked into his face when he rearranged Henry´s weight on his shoulder. Henry felt being moved around like a puppet whose strings were cut and he gave himself over again to Aidan´s strength which kept him upright. The distance seemed to be endless until they would finally reach any refuge. They might as well have tried to climb up the dark side of the moon. The stairs up to Josh´s home and to the bedroom had been an equal distance but he had been in a far worse condition then; with no skin and covered in hot wet and semi-dried blood that made him moving like a knight in a rusty armor. The world clouded by morphine.

"Okay...where?" Aidan asked when they reached the second floor.

"Follow me...!" Fitzroy said and walked through the hallway until they reached a door with a glass front. He opened the door and stepped in.

"Vicki?! We are here..." He turned over and looked at the door. Aidan and Henry were waiting outside.

"You gonna need an invitation, Aidan?" his voice a bit louder.

"Yes! We need to be invited in!" Aidan answered and he sounded pissy. He had explained this before and Fitzroy should remind it, he thought. "By the HUMAN owner!"

Fitzroy looked at him for a moment than he walked back into the rooms. Good that he didn´t need such...invitations. Feeding would become a bit more difficult.

"Vicki...please, we need you at the door!"

Vicki Nelson came out of her private rooms.

"Hi, Henry...what´s up? Why can´t you do this for me...I finished the room a moment before...I have been busy with your directions..." she halfhearted protested. But she came to the door.

"I need you to invite your guests in. Formally."

"`kay...So...what do we have here?" Vicki followed him to the front door and opened it wide.

Outside a man with dark and slightly curly hair stood at the threshold, his arm slung around a hooded figure who looked unsteady.

"Hi, I´m Vicki Nelson..." she stretched a hand towards her guests. She tried to catch a look under the hood but the man´s head was bent down, if by intention or just by weakness she couldn´t make out in the moment. We´ll find out later, she thought and tried her best smile on the one who was obviously willing to interact with her in a kindly way as one might expect from a guest who was begging for shelter.

"Hi, I´m Aidan Waite and this is my son, Henry Durham...I need you to invite us in if you´re the human owner of these rooms."

"So it´s him who needs medical help I guess..."

"Yes. Dr. Mohadevan told us that we can stay at your home...the hotel room isn´t useful for it, she said..."

Vicki tilted her head to one side, tried to lurk again under the hood of the man in front of her in an attempt to get a closer look of her second guest-to-be; with no success. Mr. vampire Henry Durham was hanging on his companion like a heap of misery and Rajani for sure hadn´t gone over the top when she had put some urgency in her request and the necessity for a separated hiding place. Okay, so far…

"Hi, I´m Vicki Nelson…Dr. Mohadevan and Henry told me that you´d come over here and begged me to prepare rooms for you." She tried to hide her rather skeptical mood behind a friendly voice. To cope with unknown vampires was always hiding some risk.

Henry must have felt very safe with them, otherwise, she doubt that he would expose her to the risk that these guests could become dangerous for her, going for her blood. Henry was extremely protective about his donors, not to speak of the woman he was in love with.

"Uhm…you need an invitation? I mean…this whole formal thing, like from the old legends…?" she smiled slightly.

Aidan nodded.

"Oh! Okay…then…I have heard a lot of stuff about you vampires…I mean I practically live with one, so to say…But even for me it´s rather unusual that such a thing I thought to be coming from an author´s feather of the century before last, is actually and really effective…But so be it…"

Vicki opened the door wider to let the pair of vampires in.

"Anything…uhm…special?"

"No…any…" Aidan mumbled. For his taste this was now taking way too long. Henry at his side, who was more hanging on than standing beside him, looked as if he would simply drop to the ground any moment. Aidan felt his arm trembling when he clung to him for a hold. He looked at Vicki, his face a mixture of expectation and urging.

The unspoken _Go on_ was hanging on his lips.

"Okay. Come in as my guests and make yourself comfortable. I invite you in…" Vicki finally said in the hope that it would do. The sentence contained everything that might be necessary to guarantee a free entrance and a safe stay, she thought.

An expression of relief run over Aidan´s face when he entered the room that was used as a waiting area of the office. He simply pulled Henry with him who stumbled into the office while Vicki closed the door behind them.

"Didn´t you know this, Henry?" she hissed to Fitzroy under her breath.

"I knew about and he told me that it has to be a human owner to invite them in. Would I have done it, it won´t have worked. Unless you want to brush them up afterwards with a dustpan…" He slightly grinned at her.

"Is this the reason why you parked them at my home instead of yours or is it simply your territorial thing that forbids it to give them shelter." She shot him a view.

"The first reason, Vicki! I own rooms but maybe you have forgotten that I´m definitely not human!" Vicki shrugged her shoulders and sped forward to show Aidan and Henry the direction. She opened the door that separated the office from her private rooms and directed to the bedroom door.

A slight moan from the hooded vampire showed her that there would be indicated a stop right here unless she wanted to pick him up from the rug.

"Okay…place him…uhm, Henry…is this his name? Place him onto the couch!" Vicki moved the table to give them space. And Aidan nodded and let Henry sink onto the sofa.

"My name is Waite. Aidan Waite. And this is my son Henry Durham…" he indicated while he crouched beside his son, looking at him full of concern. Vicki didn´t mention it that he had introduced them for the second time now. Oh my goodness, Aidan thought; I´m somewhat out of track myself, should get that under control otherwise….this woman might think me to be an idiot! Henry´s weakness was the indication that his flu infection was on progress. Aidan clung to the hope with full force, that the good doctor would find a cure… Henry must not die! He must not die, he pounded into his mind again and again.

"I´m sorry…but he needs a little rest…" Aidan excused the stop.

"He´ll gonna need a bed definitely! And maybe…" Vicki tried to get a closer look on her sick guest. She asked herself how…hungry he might be.

"Dr. Mohadevan has provided him with blood via an i.v….as you may think about the necessity to feed." Aidan could imagine why Vicki was thinking about it. They were completely unknown to her and the fact that she was used to vampires in general must have given her the knowledge, that vampires needed blood to heal and to sustain their strength. And their life…

"I didn´t worry about this, Mr. Waite…" she stated calmly.

"Please call me Aidan. Nobody but the hospital administration calls me by my surname…" Aidan interrupted her. He was not sure if she was resistant to his compelling skills or not. This woman, the way she acted and behaved…she looked tough. Not the usual type of unknowing and inexperienced victim.

What she confirmed in the next moment when she un-ceremonially shoved herself between the table and Aidan and put her hand on Henry´s shoulder.

"Let me see what we have here…looks like Rajani was right with the decision to get you over here in privacy!"

"You shouldn´t…" Aidan began in protest.

"What? What should I not? Man, I´m vaccinated against the damn flu! He has the flu, not the galloping plague! I still cared for Mike when he got sick last year. Sure thing." Vicki supported Henry´s shoulder with one hand, with the other she grabbed for the hood that covered his head, ready to peel it back.

What worse could happen? Other than he was utterly feverish and in a bad constitution? A hand fell into her wrist, tried to stop her, but Vicki wrenched her hand free.

"Don't ever dare that, Aidan, unless you want me to break your wrist!" she warned him and he pulled back, let her wrist go after a look into her eyes that showed her determination.

No reason to underestimate this woman he thought.

Vicki carefully peeled back the hood.

A sharp hiss of surprise escaped her lips when she stepped back one step.

"Oh my God! He…he looks like…" Her hand was pressed over her lips when she looked at the vampire in front of her. All what came to her mind was…

"Henry, do you have any brother? Any unknown brother or twin who…?"

Her eyes were widened in astonishment when she looked back and forth between Henry Durham and Henry Fitzroy. The resemblance was beating any expectation but for the slight difference that Henry Durham looked a little bit older; two or three years maximally.

"Before your chin is going to drop on your feet… I was wondering myself but Aidan…" Fitzroy directed to the couch; "…told me that his son was born 1895 and turned in 1918…So he can´t be any relative of me, Vic.!"

"Maybe any jump mutation over generations?!" she added in a scientist´s tone.

"Definitely not!" Fitzroy closed.

Vicki shook her head, won back her composure and then he crouched in front of Henry who was sitting on the couch, watching the scenario with strangely glittering eyes that were bled black. His natural eye color was a cerulean blue, clear like the Lake Ontario on a sunny summer day. Not unequal to those of Henry Fitzroy.

"Okay, now that we have gotten that through…let´s see…" she carefully shoved her hand under his chin and lifted his head so far that she was able to look into his eyes. When her view strolled over his face she discovered a slightly darkened spot on his skin where the collar of his shirt had moved an inch by the movement. Right in his right shoulder neck curve.

It didn´t look like dust or dirt.

Despite the fact that Henry´s skin was slightly covered with a thin film of sweat, he looked like a clean guy, not like one of the homeless out there.

"Rajani, can you please watch over this? What is this?" Vicki peeled back the collar to get better access and Henry tried to retract from her a bit. "Shhh…stay!" Vicki demanded.

Dr. Mohadevan came over and bent over Henry.

Aidan´s face went pale and he mixed in, shoved Vicki´s hand to the side and looked himself.

"Shit! Damn shit!" he cursed and even his lips went pale when he bit his tongue in worse than annoyance.

"Let me see…", Dr. Mohadevan said and shoved both hands to the side. She inspected the area with the view of the experienced medical examiner.

"Uhm…" she turned over to Aidan; "Is that the kind of lesions you mentioned with the flu?"

Aidan nodded, swallowed hard.

"Y..yes…" he choked. "He…it…I mean…he will…"

Dr. Mohadevan saw the desperation in his face, the barely hidden hint of fear;

…the fear that his son would die.

Reasonable.

Finally she put back the collar.

"Okay! Get him over…I have to check this up…" she directed to the middle of the living room; "Henry…do you feel able to stand up? I´ll have to examine you…" she tilted her head to the side, looked into his eyes and when he stood up and started to waver, she answered her question from before by herself. "Okay…over to the table…I don´t wanna pick you up from the rug amidst my examination, Henry…"

Henry looked at her and behind her head the room started to disappear in a wall of fog. He gasped and the world started to tremble around him. He felt hands at his lower arms, hands that were steadying him.

"Come over here…" Dr Mohadevan leaded him to the other side of the room where a large table was standing which Vicki used for her files and her maps. Vicki hurried over first and emptied the table from the usual mess. She threw the files over to another heap of files and Henry in his dizzy and feverish state heard only the word…table.

…Table.

He began to shiver unintentionally and she felt his hand tremble, looked into his face.

"Henry…what´s up, hm?" He stopped, stared at the blank surface of the table and fear shot up in him in a hot wave. She could see the rising panic in his eyes and she turned over to Vicki; "Wait a moment please…Get us a pillow and a bed sheet please…need´a cover this…" she begged. Vicki was back with it within a moment and she spread it over the table.

"Come on please…it´s more comfortable for you if you´re lying on a table while I´ll check this…Looks like you´re gonna have circulation problems, hm…guess you definitely need more blood, Henry…" she tried to soften his obvious tension. But he seemed to be reluctant. Maybe the infection was shading his receptiveness when his temperature was highly above his normal level. Fever shaded mind, she thought. If anything equal existed in vampires. When she directed him over to the table he stiffened and he acted like a little dog fighting against the leash.

"Henry…what´s going on, hm?"

"Can´t…can´t…not. Again." His voice was helplessly trailing away and it was sure that he didn´t react reasonably. She looked into his face, his eyes, saw…fear in them. He seemed to be afraid of anything.

"Henry…tell me! What can´t you do again, hmm?" she decided to put some soft force into her words to get any answer from it, how irrational it also might be.

Henry looked at her, he felt unable to compel her into letting him go and after half an eternity he brought out; "The…table. Can´t be…lying…on it. Can´t…Don´t do this…to me…"

Dr. Mohadevan looked at Aidan, searching for help.

"Aidan…what is it? Why is Henry so…afraid of the table?" she tried to steady Henry´s trembling body, comforting his temple with her free hand. There had to be something traumatizing about this. Otherwise he won´t have shown such a fearful reaction, despite the fact that the fever was shading his mind, letting memories boil up more intense than usually.

Aidan came over to them, grabbed Henry´s free arm and looked into the face of his son.

"Henry! She won´t hurt you! Listen! You´re safe in here!" he tried.

"What happened, Aidan, tell me please!" the doctor urged. "I have to know!"

"Henry… he was…he was skinned alive on a table by a vengeful vampiress…" Aidan answered tonelessly.

"Oh my God!" slipped from her lips. The imagination alone of what had happened to him was enough to make even her shiver with disgust and pity.

"Henry, I won´t hurt you! Nobody wants! You´re safe in here and…"

Henry slipped through her arms and Aidan caught him before he hit the ground.

"Ups…that definitely took too long yet…" she mumbled when she helped Aidan to put Henry on the table. She felt for his pulse point at the throat. As expected the pulse was low and fast, relating to his condition.

"Uhm, he passed out…not so good to have him waking up on a table now…" she said to herself, when she arranged his limbs, putting his head on the pillow that Vicki had brought her. Vicki came to the table, looked down onto the unconscious vampire. She had heard what Aidan told about Henry. As an ex-cop she knew very well how traumatized people could become by crimes committed on them and being skinned alive… Her history study at the University of Toronto had also leaded deep into the medieval ages and its more cruel side of medieval punishment.

"Guess…even a vampire can get deeply traumatized…" she whispered when she helped the doctor with peeling down Henry´s clothes. "What is it…these lesions? Do you know where this comes from…?" Vicki asked when she bared his right shoulder. The skin looked slightly grayish, like discolored or anything like this.

"Get yourself some gloves, Vicki! I don´t know what it is…" Rajani took a closer look on it; "I´ll try to get a sample from this. Then I´ll drive over to my lab and there I can examine it…just…it doesn´t look healthy and what Aidan told me…that´s quite not good definitely…"

"Ya´ mean…he´s gonna any worse?" Vicki stated from what the doctor explained.

"Don´t wanna say this. I´ll take blood from him. Best is…I do this all in once. I need blood from him to set up a culture, extracting the virus from it to mix it into a culture of Henry Fitzroy´s blood. I hope it´ll work to raise antibodies, using his highly effective immune system for it. If this works, I can inject the purified antibodies into Henry…even when his immune system cannot raise its own defense against this special flu virus…the antibodies will be able to adapt to the virus surface and inactivate them…

"Sounds good…" Vicki looked into Henry´s face, his eyes still closed; "…if we will have time enough and he´ll make it until then!"

How considerately, Vicki! Fitzroy thought. Straight as usual…Vicki…always was cutting right to the chase! Even when her point of view was correct, there were people around who were caring about Henry and to hear about a fatal ending wasn´t the thing they wanted to hear just now…

Dr. Mohadevan shot her a killing glance, her brows knitted.

They stripped down the clothes and finally Henry was naked but for his boxers.

"Vicki…just to keep this under control…I need photos…Give me your cell phone. Mine is connected to the TMP intranet. I´m doing images of the lesion, so I can keep this under surveillance…looking over the probable development… But when it´s true what Aidan said, then it´s possible that this will grow..." Dr. Mohadevan´s voice was full of concern.

"How much blood will you need, Dr.?" Aidan had come nearer to the table, his hand went for Henry´s temple and he turned his head to the left, so that the doctor could take the needed photos. "Henry didn´t feed over a long period…there won´t be any reserve so much, Dr." Aidan was more than concerned. If the doctor would need a larger amount of blood…Henry was weak enough, without any further loss of blood additionally. But his, Aidan´s, would be of no help as far as he had understood what Dr. Mohadevan was attempting.

"Uhm, I see what you means, Aidan…but I´ll need at least some 250 milliliters for setting up a culture…But I can make another transfusion to replace the loss. When we are ready here with the first examination, I´ll set up another i.v. with liquid substitution. I think his body will be able to cope with half a liter of Ringer solution…"

"What answers the question of liquid supplement…" Aidan nodded. He had never needed any doctor, neither for him nor for Henry. Over all the time they had managed any injuries, any trouble, by feeding on enough blood. A typical and the only vampire solution. But the flu virus, and his son gotten infected with it by… "I was weak…and I slipped…" Heaven, he should have known it, Aidan thought. I should have know that Henry would slip any time…my son, who has had so much control always, normally, more than me when it comes to mix feeding with sex. But since the outbreak nothing had been normal anyway. I should have stayed with him, should have taken him under my wings…to prevent this.

Aidan had survived 15 months of starving but Henry never had been exposed to such a long time of starving and it was predictable that he would falter and fall any time… Emma had been an interlude, but Henry could not feed on her forever, at least not without finally killing her. Humans could give only half a liter of blood within three months without any side effects, one liter would be the maximum, causing some remarkable effects by the volume, although without endangering one´s life directly. But more…a No-Go. And now we´ll have to deal with the results of our actions, he thought.

Henry felt a hard and plain surface under his body and a hand was at his temple. The fingers were rather cool in difference to his skin, which felt on fire. Fever…anything about a fever, the doctor had said. His eyesight was shaded by the fog of dizziness and he felt the fingers clamping to his temple. Henry tried to free his head but the grip was forceful, insisting. He gasped and groaned, panic was grabbing for his mind.

He was caught again!

Cold fingers which fixed him onto the table. Onto the table, before the knife would go under his skin and a new wave of unbearable, excruciating pain would add to the tormenting burning of his whole body.

NO!

No! He won´t…

Henry buckled under Aidan´s hand and he grabbed with the other hand for Henry´s shoulder.

"No! Let him go, Aidan! Don´t fix him down!" the doctor demanded. "He´s too weak and he´ll hurt himself when he panics!"

She bent over Henry and her hand went onto his belly, lying flat on his bellybutton region.

"Shhh…calm down, Henry…it´s all good…all okay…No harm! Ssshh…stay calm…It´s me! Dr. Mohadevan! You´re safe in here…nobody wants to harm you, Henry!" With the other hand she stroked his hot temple.

Eyes, black as the night, opened and stared at her.

"Henry…all okay…Do you hear me?" she waited for her words to penetrate his mind. When he was in a high risen fever his mind might have problems to cope with information, especially in a state near panic, she thought.

When she had the impression that Henry was able to recognize her at least, she went on;

"Henry…I have put you on Vicki´s table because you simply fainted! You passed out on the rug…You´re very weak and I have to examine you…to help you! I won´t do you any harm, Henry! Aidan is here and you are with friends! No one here to hurt you…" her voice was calm, soft and comforting. Surprisingly kind of comforting for somebody who normally has to deal with the dead.

He turned his head to her side and behind her was Vicki, the blonde woman who had let them in after inviting them.

Henry sighed and Dr. Mohadevan felt him relax a bit.

At least, she thought. Okay, tell him what you´re going to do; better to prepare him than simply going on with risking him to go into panic. Don´t know how traumatized this guy is…she thought. She bent over Henry, looking into his face. Her hand was lying softly at his head.

"Henry…?"

"Pa…pain…" he choked and then he tensed, he pulled his feet under his knees, tried to turn to one side when he started to cough again. Dr. Mohadevan helped him to roll onto his left side. When the coughing fit subsided his forehead was covered with beads of sweat.

"Ssshhh…it´s okay again, Henry?" Henry choked a weakly yes, more a whisper than anything.

"Okay…I need to take a sample from the lesion and I´m as careful as possible. And…I need blood from you!" She saw his eyes widening, if from the option to have surgery on his skin or the threatening loss of blood; she didn´t know.

"What…what…blood?!" he gasped.

"I need blood to develop a serum…antibodies. A cure…hopefully!" She couldn´t fill up his brain with difficult explanations. He had been educated as a medic, as Aidan had told her. Diphtheria serum was something he may have heard of, even in his time. Whatever knowledge he had, his mind was shaded by his sickness.

"May I count on your cooperation, Henry? I only want to help you…hm, do you understand?"

"Ye…yes…!" he sighed and his head sank back in her hand, when he finally gave up any resistance. It had to be a hard task for him to give himself over to somebody else after all what he had gone through, done to him by others, she thought.

"Relax Henry…I´ll back in a moment…Vicki please stay with him while I´ll get some things…" Vicki nodded, took over the doctor´s place at the table and Dr. Mohadevan went to her large bag and searched through it for instruments and a sample kit.

When she came back to the table she bent over the motionless vampire.

"You see this, Henry?" she lifted her hands which were covered in surgical gloves, showing him a thin scalpel and a slim piece of glass in a little box. Henry stared at her hands, his breath fast and low. "I´m gonna scratch off a bit of tissue from the lesion at your shoulder, for a sample. It won´t hurt. Okay?"

His lips formed a yes.

"We need this…I have to look what it is and what it has to do with your flu infection…Please stay calm a moment!"

She scratched a bit of the grayish tissue onto the glass plate and put it into the box, sealing it with tape.

"Okay, Henry. Done." She smiled at him.

He sighed and his head fell to the side. She taped a bandage over the wound, just for protection.

"Now…uhm…I´m gonna take some blood from you…as said before." Her hand was lying onto his upper arm. His eyes widened and she could feel him tense under her hand; "I´ll set up a transfusion for you after it, for supplement. Clean blood for flu infected blood! I think…a good exchange. You can only win by it, Henry!" she tried to cheer him up a bit, even when he might be barely receptive for anything. But her voice sounded friendly and confidentially. As long as she could keep him calm it won´t matter what she was going to tell him.

He seemed to relax and he gasped and she stroked his temple with one hand before she took the transfusion set for the bloodletting. Dr. Mohadevan checked the crook of his right arm for lesions, found it clean and carefully she pierced the butterfly needle into his vein. He twitched a bit but stayed calm. Maybe he simply was too tired, too exhausted for any further resistance or he finally trusted her with it. Her thumb scrolled the screw and the blood began to run into the bag slowly.

Henry hissed and his eyes tried to fix on the slim tube, then onto the doctor.

"Don´t worry…I´ll do this slowly enough. It will take some time, more than usual but it´s more gentle because you´re still lacking of blood in general, Henry…I don´t want you have fainting again…"

Henry closed his eyes once. Dr. Mohadevan took this as a yes.

"Okay…", she covered him with a blanket; "…try to sleep meanwhile…" She felt for his forehead, than she turned around to Henry Fitzroy, smiling at him.

"Okay. Next one in the row! Your turn!" she declared and waved with another sealed in and sterile bloodletting set. Fitzroy´s brows knitted and he looked at Vicki who replied his view.

"What?" she asked; "…the great vampire is afraid of giving some of his blood?" Vicki smirked but Fitzroy wasn´t in the mood for joking around. His face showed her what he thought about it. He came over to the doctor.

"Will you please explain me what you´re going for, Rajani…?"

She nodded.

"I need some blood from you because your immune system looks like it can cope with the virus. I´ll set up a culture with it in the lab, infecting it with the isolated virus from Henry Durham´s blood. Your blood should be able to generate antibodies against it and I´ll isolate them and then injecting into his system…Hope that´ll help and come out as a cure for him…"

His face showed his reluctance. He trusted her with his life, like Vicki, but he also felt uncertain about the procedure. Giving blood to someone, as a sample or as more than that…his own safety was always on top of all.

"Is it safe? I mean…I´ll give you blood for examinations, samples or whatsoever…What if anybody else would have…access to it! My safety as a vampire depends on it, Rajani…"

He didn´t want to end up any day nailed down to a laboratory table like a lab rat, cut into slices in the name of science.

She knew what he meant by it.

"I can guarantee you that this will be safe. No one else has access to it, so your safety will never be on any discussion, Henry! Trust me!"

"I have to trust you with my life when we do this! You know!" Henry put some power into his demand.

"I´m well aware of the responsibility, Henry!" she confirmed and looked right into his face with the slightly darkening eyes.

Fitzroy nodded.

"Okay. We will do this. My last question; is it safe from procedure…I mean…I won´t have any contact with the virus itself?"

"You don´t have contact with it. I´ll do this in the lab, not in your body, your blood system. I would never dare to take such a risk, willingly infecting you with an unknown virus type. In the lab in a container…there´s control about it and your body stays untainted, Henry. Don´t worry!"

"Okay…then…where do we do this?"

"Best you take a seat. I´ll set up the bloodletting set and I guess we can do this a bit faster as on Henry. You´re strong and healthy, your system will cope with the loss of half a liter without any problems I guess. Or have you…just to be safe! No further vampires fainting on the rug…haven´t you feed currently?" she smiled broadly at him.

"I fed last night. I feel strong enough."

"Good, good! I know you have bad experiences with bloodletting but this will happen under medical conditions and for medical purposes. Not for feeding any Cretino with a weird blood/herb mix to sustain immortality."

The mad priest and one-time inquisitor Javier Mendoza had tortured him and stolen his blood through a tube to keep oneself alive with vampire blood. Understandable that Henry was rather reluctant in giving blood in an equal process.

"So let´s go over there…" Fitzroy directed to the chair beside the couch. "Will that fit?"

"Of course…" the doctor confirmed with a smile of relief.

She followed him and he peeled up his sleeve and she set the needle and within a few moments the first amount of blood was running down into the bag. A strange, somewhat weird vision; a vampire giving blood instead of sucking it! She opened the regulation screw as wide as possible to speed up the process. Fitzroy was sated and healthy, he won´t suffer any uncomfortable effects by it.

Dr. Mohadevan turned her attention on Aidan who was sitting on the couch.

"Aidan, I have to drive over to my lab with these tissue samples. Henry Fitzroy can bring me the blood bags when he and your son are ready. I mean…you, being a nurse, should be able to de-install the sets when the bags are filled. Aren´t you?" she asked him. "Finally when Henry is ready can you please set up a blood transfusion on him? I tested him to be type 0, negative… additionally he needs half a liter from the Ringer which you´ll find in my bag…"

"No problem, Dr.! I´ll care for it. It´s part of my usual job…"

"Fine! That gives me the possibility to start directly when I get the blood. We won´t have time to lose. If anything happens, if you need any help…this is my mobile number, Aidan! You can reach me any time and I´ll be here soon." She gave him a small note with her phone number.

"When will you be back…regular…?" Aidan sounded a bit concerned and he shot his son a fast look.

"A few hours. I´m in the forensic lab. I have a case on the table for Mike and if I won´t finish it soon, the very nice and most of all feared Lady Crowley will start a little assault on us, me and Mike ending up with slit butt human style!"

Crowley, the Staff Inspector, had almost ripped apart the lab in the morning with that case of murder among the Toronto high society. Crowley was upside down under the ceiling with this case, handling it like they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. And whirlwind Crowley style always reached level Supervolcano blow out! She grinned under her breath.

"I´ll be back soon, Aidan…"

"Okay…and..thank you so much, Dr. Mohadevan!"

She took her bag and waved to Fitzroy and Vicki and left the rooms.

**Toronto Metropolitan Police**

Dave was in a good mood. He looked over to his partner at the other desk. Dave had the actual newspaper in his hands and grinned when he read the head line. He couldn´t keep his inner self back from bombing it at the blonde detective.

Mike could make use of some…distraction, he thought. And Dave started to read aloud.

"Mr. Donald Cosgrove pronounced dead on the internet. The Toronto Star* met him at the breakfast table" (* The Toronto Star is one of the great newspapers in Toronto)

Mike knitted his brows and without looking up from his desk he mumbled: "And the guy was met eating some brain instead of toast and eggs?"

"Maybe also someone´s eggs, we dunno!" Dave grinned; "Balls, balls, balls…gimme some tasty balls!" he sang and his voice broke into a roaring laughter that seemed to make the water in Mike´s glass trembling. In a reflex Mike put his hand over the glass.

"Dave, don´t tell me you changed your eating habits from donuts to nuts!" Mike looked a bit as if Dave had put some grave worms onto his plate. Sometimes his partner had really…strange ideas.

"Why not? What´s about balls, Mike? In Greece it´s a rare delicacy!"

"Eeeww, you are gross, Dave!"

Mike looked at him, his face a mask of disgust.

"I´m afraid you worked way too long in the SVU, Dave. Too much separated preciosities will ruin any border!"

"At least my dead weren´t walking around after being mummified or good old Count Dracula made them his midnight snack!" His partner grinned and Mike shook his head before he decided to turn his attention back to his files.

He doubted that Dave had ever got it how tight he had been to the truth. Pachacamac had haunted Toronto, leaving over a heap of mummies. This damn God of the Dead from Peru had forced him into wiping evidences under the rug, not only literally. For the first time in his life Mike had manipulated evidences of crime to hide them from Kate.

This sin was still burning on his soul up to now. He had compromised his own good cop- bad cop images.

Mike Celluci was digging through the all time rising pile of files on the corner of his desk. Since Vicki had left the homicide due to her progressing Retinitis Pigmentosa, the cases took a bit longer. The department was not less successful but the lack of one detective was counting. Dave Graham, his new partner since that moment, was a good cop. They had recruited him from the Special Victims Unit which mostly handled cases of sexual crimes and murder. Dave had been outside among dealers, prostitutes and victims of sexual crimes. He had his own way to deal with the murderers because his experience spread around the scene.

"Hi, Mike…" Dave smiled. "Did the good doc give you the results of the Jean Luc Mansignon case? I bet this guy was a regular at the Dream´s Club! I asked some of the ladies there and they were somewhat damn restrictive and reluctant about Mr. Mansignon. There´s a lot of money put in the game and his wife…" Dave made a very meaningful move with his hand; "Na na…she´s not that uninformed as she pretends to be! I dunno why she does! These peeps always try to brush everything under the rug…until the heap has the size of a razor back!" Dave put a bag on the table and Mike leaned back, opening it. A wave of sugar scent escaped it and he picket a chocolate covered Donut from it. He bit down hungrily.

"Bring in some more of this stuff, Dave and my doc will kill me faster than my Cholesterol level!" Mike laughed and chewed. "Beside…Rajani is working on it!"

"On what? Your cholesterol level or Mr. Bunga Bunga?" Dave laughed.

"On WHAT?" Mike´sky blue eyes bore into Dave´s. The colored detective spread a broad grin at him.

"Nu, Bunga Bunga…it´s European politics! You should know best, Mike. Who´s the Italian in here?"

Mike grinned when it made click, click, click.

"As long it´s not vampire politics…" he answered and bit his lip. He almost had given away something his partner didn´t need to know. But Dave wasn´t growing suspicious. My God, fortunately. He jumped into the rift directly.

"This slime spitting, neck biting Mr. Suckaround of Russell Egdington stomps on my nerves, more than this bitchy Queen of Louisana! Last nite´s ep made even my tomcat scream around, jumping the damn shelf and getting me finally rid of my Grandma´s milk cow! Oh I have hated this friggin thing…" Dave laughed; "Finally I should be thankful for Mr. Egdingtons´s creepy feeding habits! But for the fact that afterwards I had to pick up my cat from under the sofa. I think he simply hates vampires!"

"That´s a feeling I´m absolutely participating, Dave!"

"To hate vampires?"

"Yeap! I know one!"

"Who? This girly vampy Fennel?"

"Ms. Fennel is a gothie, no vampire!" Mike corrected him. He sighed and rolled with his eyes, directed to the ceiling. True Blood had saved his life. Once again. Thanks to Canadian TV channels Dave meant him to be talking about the show, not the real world.

Until any day…and I won´t live this day to live it…Fitzroy would set his foot into his office with fangs down and eyes bled black, going for his throat because of Vicki.

Oh, I hate this royal bastard son of a royal mistress! Mike thought and bit in his donut with rural force as a supplement for the missing vampire Fitzroy. Dave was chewing on his own donut, feeding through the second one when Mike was on number one. He directed to the pile of case files;

"We would be thru this if it won´t be for the damn flu this season…Can anybody explain to me why all the peeps won´t get vaccinated?! All cuz any freak in the CTV mentioned the damn pig flu virus being less dangerous than the vaccine! They should stick that guy right into a pig stable until he´ll come dripping out under the door …on a sweet slippery flood of pig poop!"

"Yeap, should!" Mike absently answered while he opened the file on top of the pile.

"Kate is sick, Pete cares for his son and Phil and Big Daddy called in sick today! I´m devastated area! And Crowley surfs in my shadow like a hungry wolf, digging for a pair of dry bones!"

"Don´t talk to me of dry bones, Dave! I got enough of Mummy Quetzalcotl a few months ago." Mike was bringing the fact into the play that there had been a case of a stolen mummy from the Royal Ontario Museum. But in reality this mummy had been walked out of the box after an idiot had stolen the pendant that had kept Pachacamac in his coffin.

Mike swallowed the rest of his donut and grabbed for his phone. Dr. Mohadevan´s number was stored in the phone list and he pressed the button with his thumb, leaning back and waiting for her to answer. His hands folded in his hurting neck.

The phone rang and finally a male voice took up the call

"Mac here! Hi, Mike…what can I do for you?"

"I? I tried to get Rajani! Where is she? Crowley is…she…"

"I know, I know, Mike! Wait a moment, I´m gonna look for her…" Mike heard the forensic assistant walking thru the laboratory, opening a door and finally his voice came back; "I´m sorry but the doc isn´t in here…"

"Where…what the heck?! She should analyze this case…Mansignon!" Mike gave his mood some space and air. What made the assistant twitch back a bit but he was used to Mike´s temper.

"The doc is coming in the lab…wait a moment, please…! Dr. Mohadevan! Detective Celluci for you…" he gave the phone over to her and Mike heard her breathing hard.

"You got on the run, Rajani?"

"I´m coming in just now, Mike! That´s it!"

"What´s about the Mansignon case? Do you have the final analyzes? Crowley is biting my arse since yesterday cuz of it!" Mike tried to reign in his temper a bit but he was down to the ground of the drain.

"The files only have to be printed and I have to do a bit of toxicology with Mac. You´ll get that as fast as I have finished it, Mike…"

"Tell this Crowley! You know her!"

"Relax Mike and forget about her presence! We all are working double layers, double shift, cuz of the flu!"

"Where have you been, Rajani? I´ve tried to reach you in the lab since one hour?!" Mike grunted.

"I have a mobile! Beside…I have been out to Vicki. She has a case at hand where she needed me. You should have simply asked Mac, he knew about…"

"…kay! Which case? What is she doing meanwhile?" Mike pierced in the salad bowl, his pencil was poking into the writing set on his desk. Finally he threw it at the next wall where it fell down with a pling.

"Vicki and Henry are working on a special case. He helps her but they needed my opinion…! Nothing else, Mike…" she kept her voice calm to prevent the situation from escalating. What she gave away was the best circumscription for it without giving away the truth. Mike would go straight thru the ceiling, would he learn to know what in Vicki´s office and home…and in Toronto…was going on currently. What kind of vampire invasion or blood suckers congress as he once called it?

She heard Mike grunting from the other end of the line then his voice got a touch of resigning;

"Okay, call me when you have him ready! I damn want to get rid of this high society boner!"

Dr. Mohadevan couldn´t hide a grin what fortunately Mike couldn´t see thru the phone.

"I will…" The click from the other end told her that Mike had hung up.

"Umpf…that has been tight!" she mumbled. Mac nodded and she went over to her office and lab area, closing the door behind her. She put on gloves and took the tissue samples from her bag.

After a few minutes she was watching the first sample through her microscope.

"Hm…looks like the material…the cells are degenerating…I should try to isolate the DNA or RNA from the nucleus. We´ll see if its flu RNA or normal DNA…" she turned her head; "Mac, is the PCR available? I have some genetic tests to do!"

"Yup! You can…! I finished mine a few minutes ago. The machine is still warm…" McCormick aka simply Mac was the long experienced assistance in her laboratory and working together was a good thing. Mac worked in the forensic lab since some twelve years and she could simply give over material to him, by this having a support at hand that made her own work a lot easier.

But these special samples were her business. None should know that she was examining…vampire tissue!

She prepared the small tube with a little segment of the skin that she had taken from Henry´s shoulder and put it in the system, pressed buttons and a LED started to blink while the PCR Analyzer worked. An acoustic signal would tell her when the test was finished.

Dr. Mohadevan went over to her desk again and laid the second sample under her microscope. The tissue showed another state of degeneration than the first one. Obviously, what she suspected, was decay on cellular level, caused by the virus RNA intruding the cell core structure. Normally a virus, attacking a cell, intruded the core or the mitochondrial system, by those re-programming the cell core to produce virus-RNA instead of the normal origin DNA; by this reproducing itself in a host cell. Finally the virus´ were set free, spreading over an organism and infecting other cells to do the same. As long as the immune system was not able to recognize the virus structure and defend the body by destroying or at least inactivating the intruding virus. This went by specific antibodies or modified cells of the immune system.

This sample, she thought, looked like the virus infection of the core had reached its final state, burning out the reproduction capacity and so leading to the death of the cell finally. Dr. Mohadevan wondered that skin cells were involved in the infection process. Normally blood- or mucosa cells were the target, not skin cells like in a measles or chicken pox infection. Fortunately she could handle this tissue under normal condition in difference to Henry Fitzroy´s tissue which would burn up under ultraviolet light or daylight.

"At least these don´t burn up under normal light…" she mumbled to herself. The cells at the edge of the sample which looked quite normal, as still being alive and sliding the sample showed her that she was right with it.

Carefully she transferred the material into a Petri dish onto a culture medium. When Fitzroy would bring in the blood bags she could test if vampire blood would restore…heal…the damage caused by the flu virus. Normally vampires healed all injuries and damages by drinking enough blood. As she knew from before, when she had treated Fitzroy gunshot wound, doing transfusions of blood because he had been too weak to drink then, even normal blood would do and using Fitzroy´s blood which contained specified immune cells should do better.

By the same time it would show if his blood was able to heal cellular damage caused by this flu virus…and the skin lesions on Henry.

She put the Petri dish into a small fridge to keep it cool until the blood would be here.

Then she went back to the Mansignon case.

The body was lying on the steel table, under a white covering cloth. Dr. Mohadevan peeled it back and looked down onto the head. Stitches showed where the skull had been opened to examine the brain what was a routine procedure in forensics. Died had Mr. Mansignon by a pound on the back of his head. Occipital fracture by blunt force was the forensic expression when a murderer used a lamp or a stone for example to smash one´s head from behind.

In this case it had been the feet of a large nightstand lamp.

She watched thru the file and went over to her computer, where she found an email from the metallurgic lab. The DNA testing of the lamp had shown up to be from an unknown person, none of those, who were still registered in the crime files. Nothing else was to be expected because the location of the murder was a high class brothel, one of these clubs in Toronto where people from the upper class searched their entertainment of the special kind.

The investigation had resulted in the verification that the specific lamp had been the killing tool. The metal went conform to fragments found in the head wound.

"Well, Mike will be satisfied…" she turned to her phone, adding the hard copy of the analysis to the file.

"Hi, it´s me. Rajani! I have the complete results of the investigation in the Mansignon-case, finally…the lamp is the murder weapon! The Met lab has sent me the results a few minutes ago…"

"Finally! You saved my day! And my ass, Rajani…" Mike sighed.

"A usually, Detective!" she laughed a bit.

"Okay! This is such a good message, I´ll take some of my precious time and I´m still on my way to your lab to get my Crowley release certificate!"

"Not necessary, Mike! I can send them over by our trainee!" she hurried to answer. Mike was the last one of the homicide she wanted to have right here, now!

"No, no! This I want to pick up myself!"

She heard a click in the line and knew that Mike was on his way down to her lab.

Too late, she thought.

Mike would be here in a few minutes!

Dr. Mohadevan looked on the clock at the wall.

Oops! She was here since more than an hour! Fitzroy should be coming in soon and… She sighed. There were days, even nights in the lab here when things went out of the track a bit! Henry Fitzroy had two hours left until the sunrise would nail him down for the day. Enough time to make it to her and back into the safety of his home, she thought. The doctor shot a look over to the PCR generator, but the LED was still blinking in orange color; work in progress, but not finished yet.

Okay.

A few minutes later Mike took the last turn to the door of Dr. Mohadevan´s laboratory. His hand on the doorknob, he heard fast but quiet steps behind his back. Mike turned his head to see…

Henry Fitzroy.

Who was carrying a cooling unit that looked like the size from a mobile home.

What the heck?

Mike grunted. He would have liked to smash the door shut in front of Fitzroy but the vampire was fast enough to hurry into the lab behind Mike before the door fell shut.

"Hi!" Mike grunted and watched the large cooling unit. He knew pretty well that the storage unit would contain either blood or…anything from a case of murder? One´s head for example? Or a cut off foot or what else? He couldn´t stop him from giving a biting comment to Henry.

"Hi! Are you going to store a stock of your food in here? Just in case you won´t make it to your home before sunrise?" Mike grinned at him but the vampire kept calm when he answered;

"I have my safe sources anywhere else but in Dr. Mohadevan´s laboratory, Detective!" his face stern.

"Oh! Sure! Any of your meal-on-legs will be available anywhere…every time. Vicki told me that you have a whole bunch of addresses in your note book." Mike shot back and he waited for the vampire to react.

But Henry showed him the cold shoulder and put the cooling unit on the free examination table. The doctor went over to him and lifted the lid of the box. Mike lurked into it from behind her shoulder.

He saw two bags of blood.

"Exactly what I expected!" he mumbled.

Before the doctor could take the bags to the fridge Mike caught a look onto the labels.

The smaller one was blood from a Henry Durham, the other one, the larger one, contained blood from Henry Fitzroy.

What the heck? Was Fitzroy going to be a blood donor by now? Or what else had the good doctor in mind? Mike directed to the bag, stepping into Dr. Mohadevan´s path and stopping her before she reached the fridge.

"What is this for?" his voice a bit like he used to speak with a suspect in the interrogation room.

"What?" She shot him an innocent view and smiled at him. Well aware that Mike wasn´t in the mood for smiling.

"This bag! His…" he directed to Fitzroy; "…blood! For what purpose? Normally he´s gonna drink it instead of putting himself into the row of blood donors? What is going on here?" His voice became more demanding.

"Test! I´m doing some tests on it. Nothing else, Mike."

"Are you searching for the key to immortality, Dr.?"

"Maybe." She looked at him with a victorious smile.

"…kay! But what has it to do with the other bag? Human blood or is it also originating from a vampire?" Mike stared her down, despite the fact that Fitzroy was right beh…

Behind, he guessed but he was wrong with it.

In the next moment Fitzroy had managed it anyway to bring himself between the doctor and Mike and he looked right into Mike´s eyes, fixing him with his now darkened pools of black orbs.

These black eyes once had been Mike´s nightmare.

_You don´t need to see their ID´s. These aren´t the robots you´re searching for…_

The sentence she once had heard in the movie Star Wars- episode 4- The last Hope, shot into Rajani´s mind now when Fitzroy´s voice had changed to the darker timbre he used on victims, opponents or somewhat hesitating blood donors.

"You have gotten your files, Detective and Staff Inspector Crowley is waiting for them! These bags are of no interest for you and you have never seen them, Detective!"

Mike gulped, his brows knitted and he shook his head over wasting his precious time in a lab at nighttime.

"I´m in a hurry, Rajani. Crowley is biting my ass otherwise. Thank you and good night!" Mike turned right on his heels and before he left the lab he mumbled a halfhearted;

"Good night, Fitzroy!"

"Good night, Detective" Henry´s voice sounded friendly and relaxed as if nothing had door fell shut.

Dr. Mohadevan looked at him.

"I hate it to hang out in his mind…" Fitzroy mumbled and smirked at her.

She replied his smile, before she became earnest again.

"How are you?"

"Good. No problem for me." Henry answered.

"And how is Henry…?"

"He´s weak anyway. Aidan has set up a blood transfusion for him and one of these bottles you told him to add. He´s lying in the bed now and has these infusions running on both his arms. Vicki´s bedroom now has reached the state of a hospital room…" Henry explained when he followed her thru the lab.

"I know. But it was the only option that seemed to be safe, that came to my mind when I saw him lying in this bed in the boarding house. He couldn´t have stayed there, under no circumstances! I only hope that it will work. My point of view is that this is the only possibility to save his life, if any… There´s a slight chance that his body will accept the antibodies, even if they origin from your blood. I clean them up to a pure extract of antibodies which will minimize the risk of any kind of allergic reaction from his side. I have to be prepared for everything, even an anaphylactic reaction. If something like this is possible in them…"

"We don´t know anything about these vampires, out of a medical point of view, Dr.! But it´s the only chance, if any, to heal him and save his life. I´ve never seen anything like this on vampires…and I have lived thru a lot of flu epidemics, even worse, throughout my long existence. But they are somewhat different from me…they are immortal, but they may have other weaknesses than me."

"Like Mick St. John. He´s different from you too. Also his sensibilities are different…"

"But he can stay awake at daytime. I don´t know about Aidan and his son, but if he works as a nurse…rather difficult only to work night shifts without finally raising any suspect…" Henry assumed.

"Ohm, I think you have to go soon, Henry...cuz of sunrise..." she reminded him.

"Don´t worry, I have an eye on it. When will you go back to Vicki? You worked whole night long, I guess..." he stroked her temple and smiled at her.

"I´ll go to her when I have finished the PCR and the preparing of the culture medium."

The beep of the PCR caught her attention. She looked over and the PCR reactor´s LED had switched to green. The process had been finished and she went over to it, took the tubes out.

"Okay...so let´s see what we got..."

Dr. Mohadevan prepared the gel electrophoresis boards to test the sample against verified material. When she was ready she looked over to Henry who had sit down, but now was rising from his seat. He took his hoodie sweater and came over to her, bent down to her ear;

"I have to leave now, Rajani..."

"I know..." she looked to the window; "...sleep well, Henry. we´ll see us tonight..."

He smiled; "Thank you so much, Rajani, for helping us...I wish you much success. I´ll come over to Vicki tonight..."

"You´re welcome, Henry. Always a pleasure to help you and Vicki." she smiled at him and he left the laboratory.

While leaving McCormick met him; "HI! Leaving so soon?"

"Yes, I have to go. Other business. I have been waiting for the results but Dr. Mohadevan has to do further investigations on it..."

"Yeap, she´s amazing...isn´t she?" The assistant quietly laughed.

"Yes, indeed. Good night..." Henry left the forensic department.

Dr. Mohadevan looked on the gel boards. The electric field would spread the DNA material to bands which could be related to the bands of verified virus materials, so telling her which flu virus Henry Durham was suffering from. While the electrophoresis was running she went over to the fridge and took out the blood bags.

She looked at the tags and smiled silently.

Henry had manipulated Mike´s receptiveness so he didn´t get it what was going on. She had to hide what she would be doing because she needed the lab for it. At home she wouldn´t have the supplies to do a blood culture.

The electrophoresis would take its time and meanwhile Dr. Mohadevan took the blood bags over to her desk. She opened her closet and built up laboratory equipment with culture bottles in a laminar flow to prevent an infection of the culture by external organisms. Mac, her assistant, opened the door and lurked in.

"I´ll be busy some hours here, Mac. I have to do some special investigations…" she said, when he looked over to her, preparing the extraction of the virus material from Henry Durham´s blood.

"Okay, Rajani. Take your time with it. I´ll do the examination of the other corpse together with Ewa…"

"Thank you, Mac. If there will be any problems with it, don´t hesitate to call me over!"

"Okay."

He closed the door and went back into his own dissection room. The doctor let out a breath of relief and concentrated onto her work. She could rely on him in all cases and he would only disturb her now in a case of absolutely necessity.

The electrophoresis gel board was ready now and she watched over it.

The material from Henry went equal with the verified sample of Influenza A, type H3N2.

"Looks like you caught what almost everybody of the patients got this season…Nothing uncommon. But what for? Okay…let´s go!"

The doctor took the board and turned back to her laminar flow, her sterile working box where she would separate the virus fraction from the blood and vaccinate Henry Fitzroy´s blood with it. For her it was an easy task because she had done such work so often during her specification into forensics at the university. She vaccinated another culture bottle that contained Fitzroy´s blood with the extracted virus and connected it with a warming unit to keep upright a temperature of approximately 90°F (32° C) which was Fitzroy´s normal body temperature.

"Okay, my little ones…" she smiled when she looked at the finished installation; "What…? What did I hear?" She tilted her ear to the laminar flow, smiled again and nodded. "You will do your very best! That´s okay!" She slipped out of the gloves, stroked thru her tousled hair and fixed the string around her pony tail.

Hopefully Fitzroy´s immune system would be as fast as usual and the pool would generate enough antibodies to be isolated. What she knew from Aidan about the flu on vampires…the appearance of lesions indicated a progress of the infection and it was not predictable how fast an infection would be going forward then, unpredictable how much time would be left for Henry.

The production of antibodies in a human after a vaccination normally took approximately two weeks…a span of time they definitely won´t have! The only hope they now could have was, that the vampire blood was ten times faster at least.

With good luck she would get the needed amount within a few hours. Otherwise Henry Durham´s chances would tend to zero…

**Mike´s office**

Dave lifted his head from his files when his partner entered their office. What he was hearing made him really look up.

Mike was humming a song with low voice, one of his favorites as Dave knew. What the heck was going on? Had Mike won in a lottery a million bucks? Or what…?

He saw that Mike was waving with a whole bundle of paper and his face had a lucky expression the first time since three days, the first time since they rolled in the Mansignon corpse in a body bag.

"He Mike, what´s up? You won anything, man?" he threw in with a jovial voice.

"Nope! But yes to say so! Rajani has the files ready in the Mansignon case! Finally we can handle that over to Crowley and she would stop to sto…"

Dave tensed.

Mike looked at his partner, just in time to see a figure entering thru the open office door.

"What would I stop to…?" Crowley´s voice cut thru the atmosphere like a knife made by ultra cold ice. Her dark blonde hair was tied back behind her head, giving her face the expression of a hawk.

"I have the final files of the case of murder…Mr. Mansignon. And so you can stop to wait for them. The DNA…" Mike watched the page; "resembles the base of the lamp and verifies it as the murder weapon, Inspector!" He closed the file and handed it over to her, into her waiting hand.

Handing over was relative. It more had something of letting it drop into her hand as if being made of burning hot iron. Most of all Mike would have liked to clean his hands afterwards, when for a mere second his hand touched her skin. Some people could make one shudder cuz of their all over coldness, he thought when he unintentionally felt his hair stand on ends.

"Thank you, Detective Celluci! Now we can close this case!" Her voice was icy.

As usual.

Who the heck had the friggin idea to make Crowley a Staff Inspector? In Mike´s opinion there were better candidates available. But this has not been his decision, fortunately!

"Yes, Ma´am! And Mr. Mansignon´s wife can set up the burial finally. She would be relieved and satisfied, as far as." Mike added and when his boss nodded and turned to the door, a;

"Hope, you´ll get the other cases finished as fast as this one, Detective Celluci!" on her slim, pale lips, he didn´t bother about; as long as she was simply leaving by now.

The door fell shut behind her and Dave and Mike let out a breath of relief.

Finally.

But she would be up to torment the next detectives she would get to. Poor guys.

She´s as pale as if the royal bastard son of a king, Henry Fitzroy, had taken a bite of her, Mike thought; But Fitzroy would rather shrug back from her and be starving than to drink his fill from her!

Mike grinned and Dave looked at him when he saw the smirk on his face. But he didn´t answer, just to be safe. Therefore he knew his partner too good.

Mike grabbed for his phone and his thumb pressed dial when Vicki´s number appeared in his phone list. He smiled and leaned back a moment, his cell phone at the ear, with an expression of relief on his face.

Mike heard the calling signal at the other end of the line.

He watched at the clock on the wall.

"Nu…come on, Vic! Take up the call!" he begged low under his breath. It took a time while the cell was ringing.

"Vic! Go on!" he urged.

**Vicki´s home- Huron Street**

Vicki looked at Aidan, while she bent over Henry. He looked tired and somewhat exhausted.

"C´mon, Aidan! Take a rest! You have to be tired after all! You can´t do anything in the moment for Henry. We have to wait until Rajani will bring in the antibody-extract!"

"Do you have any imagination how long this can take?" Aidan asked.

"Dunno. I´m sorry, but this is the first time she tries something like this on a vampire. Neither I nor she has any practical experience with it… so we have to wait. You should sleep a bit, Aidan. I´ll take care of your son meanwhile. If I need any help, I´ll wake you up but you won´t be of any use if you yourself gonna be totally exhausted…" she urged him, knowing how reluctant he would be to let Henry back in the bed in this condition, while he went for sleep.

He looked undecided but finally he nodded when her demur seemed reasonable. She was right. It won´t be helpful when he was going to triple over his own feet, out of weariness. His first hunger was tilted by the bags he had fed from and watching the blood running into Henry didn´t make his own urges becoming better. Fitzroy was gone with the bags of his own and Henry´s blood and the doctor would do what she was able to, in an attempt to develop a cure for his son…

"Okay, Ms. Nelson…" he rose from his seat.

"Vicki! Please."

"Fine. Vicki…where can I take a nap?" he didn´t want to occupy the couch without so much as asking for. If so, he would simply sleep on the ground. 15 months in a narrow box had reduced his needs to a minimum. He wasn´t at home and they were guests in here!

If not welcomed but at least tolerated…when it came to the territory thing. Vicki, the partner of Fitzroy, and/or his love affair maybe, seemed to be open-minded. She had begged them in without hesitation when Fitzroy had begged her for. At least she wasn´t afraid of vampires and she also seemed to be self confident enough to be resistant to any compelling skills.

"Take the couch, Aidan. There is a blanket…" Vicki walked over and gave him a blanket from her closet and a cushion. She smiled at him and Aidan went over to the living room, let him sink onto the couch. He sighed when he folded his hands under his cheek.

Sleeping on a side was something that had not been possible for a very long time when he was motionless fixed on his back in the coffin. So now he enjoyed it as often as possible. Moving around in his bed with a newly won back freedom.

He heard the cell phone ring in the other room, decided it to be Vicki´s phone.

Vicki turned her head over to the nightstand where her cell phone was lying.

"What? Who´s that again?" Vicki shot her cell a look and recognized Mike´s mobile number.

"I really need you right now…" she mumbled angrily. With tensed lips she picked up her phone and grunted;

"Hi Mike! What´s up? Anything of urgency?"

"Hi Vic! Don´t call me a dude!" Mike grunted back, his good temper from the moment before melting like ice in the sun.

"I´m busy, Mike! And I lack of time! That´s all about!"

Henry let out a moan.

Mike became alert.

"Who´s that?"

"Who?"

"The moan! Don´t mean me to be rising outta mud bath!"

Vicki thought hastily. She couldn´t pretend it to be Henry Fitzroy because the sun had risen since one hour.

"Coreen. She hit her toe…we are cleaning up the mess in my office and she ran into a heavy box in her haste. You know her, Mike…" she lied.

Vicki sped out of the bedroom, closed the door behind. Sealing Henry and his moaning in, keeping him off Mike´s hearing range. Who knows what bad dreams the poor guy had about his past, she thought. If ever these vampires could and were dreaming!

And the blood bag would have to be switched off soon. The last what she had seen it was almost empty. Either waking up Aidan for it or she would do it by herself; she had provided Henry Fitzroy with a transfusion when Mike shot him down.

Mike!

Who was still lingering at the other end of the line.

"He, Vic? You…fallen asleep or slipped on a file?" he asked when there was a pause from her side.

"I´m okay, Mike." She sounded stern.

"Uhm, thought you to have an…accident too…telling me, your office is a mess. Doesn´t look like that usually."

"You gonna try to indicate you´re not used to my office anymore? It´s been a pretty long time since we worked together!" Vicki was listening to the bedroom and shot a look over to the couch where Aidan, fortunately, was sound asleep now. The guy…uhm vampire, really looked like he needed some sleep. His rather pale skin showed dark rings around the eyes and for sure, the last time hadn´t been easy for them over there in Boston.

"Oh, c´mon Vicki!"

"Mike! I´m very busy in the moment! If you would get to the point now. Please! Quite sure you won´t come…ohm, call in just for nothing!" she bit her lip about what had slipped unintentionally. Crap! Keep aware what you´re gonna talking! She demanded to herself.

"I can come over to you later. I only wanted to say hello and tell you that the Mansignon case is closed now! Finally. Call me a lucky man, Vic!" Mike urged halfway seriously.

"Lucky man." Vicki shortly and tonelessly stated and watched over to the bedroom door that was left ajar. Over the time her eyesight had become worse, her hearing seemed to have improved and she could hear noises that were unavailable for her before. Nature always finds a way, she thought.

"Doesn´t exactly sound like congrats, Vic. But as you´re busy I won´t wonder about. Next…"

Vicki tensed.

"How´s Fitzroy anyway?" Mike was testing uncertain waters now, being well aware that his question would grow her suspect, because she knew Mike not to be a vampire´s greatest friend. In general and in Fitzroy´s case especially.

"How should he be? Asleep. As usually. The sun is up since one hour, so, what else should he do? He didn´t tell me that he wanted to be roasted today. No day to die for, Mike!" she snapped.

Slowly it went into Mike´s brain that Vicki was acting, especially answering his questions like a suspect in the interrogation room at precinct. Her answers were as short as possible, as if trying not to give away more than necessary! Okay, he thought.

But WHAT was she trying to keep flying low under the radar?

Had Fitzroy done anything to her to arouse her temper that she was in such a pissy mood? If so, he would be going to hunt down this bastard son of a royal bitch! Whatever did this guy dare? Maybe Toronto was his vampire territory, but he never had been any king, the less the king of Ontario or whole Canada!

"Stop kidding me, Vic!" What is going on at your home office?"

"Nothing, we just clean up. It´s lots of work to clean up year´s old stuff and I have to do a job tonight, So we wanna get ready with it, if a certain detective won´t keep us apart from it any longer, Mike!"

Direct hit, Vicki. Yeah, you´re gonna smash it right into my face that I should piss off, Mike thought.

Dave saw how his facial expression grew from jovial to angry. Obviosly Vicki had spit any insult at him. Mike´s answer was fitting into it when he grunted;

„Okay, Victoria! I got it! What do I care for it what you´re doing any longer?" He switched his cell phone off and threw it onto his desk amidst the files and the phone.

„Did Vicki...turn you down, Mike?" Dave asked and ducked when an angry Mike threw the greasy paper bag at him, sticky noodles in it.

„Le´mme be!" he spat and his sky blue eyes were ablaze.

Dave decided it to be better to pretend being busy and he picked up a file and left the office.

When Mike was in such a mood it was better to avoid him.

„Fuck you!" Vicki growled into the phone and bared her teeth at it with a bad grin when Mike switched off. „Finished! Ready to go!" she grunted and shoved her phone into the pocket of her jeans. She looked over to Aidan who was sound asleep. Obviously her call hadn´t waken him up. Vicki stepped over to the bedroom door and slipped in, closing it behind her.

Vicki looked at the blood bag that was hanging from the wall. It was empty and she bent over Henry. He was awake obviously, his lids half open. Under the lashes she saw bled black eyes. If it came from the intravenous feeding or from his feverish condition she didn´t know.

„Hmm...okay, lemme look at you..." she bent over Henry, her hand went for his forehead. It was way too warm for what she knew from vampires. Carefully she let her fingers slip down to his throat, feeling for the pulse point. Henry twitched a bit.

„Hm...it´s all okay...just feeling for your pulse...don´t worry, Henry...I´m here for you and Aidan is sleeping in the room over there...it´s all okay. Relax..."she mumbled with a slight smile in an attempt to keep him calm.

Carefully she grabbed for the regulation screw at the slim tube of the transfusion set, turned it shut and disconnected it from the butterfly needle in Henry´s arm. He sighed and Vicki looked in his face. Over and over again she was astonished about Henry Durham bearing resemblance to Henry Fitzroy. Only Durham seemed to look slightly older than Fitzroy.

She twitched a bit when his eyes fixed into hers, then she caught her composure again, switching back to the here and now. Vicki turned around to the nightstand where a small bowl was standing. She dipped a wash cloth into it, wrung it and dabbed Henry´s forehead and temples.

"When Rajani comes back she will set up a new transfusion for you, or Aidan does so..." Her hand with the wash cloth wandered down to his chin and her fingertip felt over his lips. For a second she held her breath.

How hungry was Henry? Would he try to...bite her, hungry for more blood?

The moment went and Vicki relaxed. His lips felt dry and raw. For sure the fever made them so.

"Do you wanna drink some water, Henry? I guess your throat is dry...hm?"

Henry whispered a weak yes.

"Okay...I´ll help you..." her hand slipped under his neck, lifting his head a bit and with the other hand she brought a glass to his lips, poured a first sip between his half opened lips.

Henry felt the coolness of the glass at his lips. He sighed and with Vicki´s support he lifted his head, sucked at it and swallowed hard. The doctor had given him water in the hotel. He remembered to drink water beside his regular blood feeding...

His view trailed to the slim tube ending in another butterfly canula in his right arm. When he tried to fix anything more distant, his view was fogged. He moaned softly and gulped down the water, his head lolling on her hand.

Carefully Vicki let sink him back when he finished the glass.

"Any better, Henry?"

"Y..yes..."

The noise of the glass, placed back onto the nightstand was clear and sharp in his ears, but his vision shaded with fog. He felt weak and his heartbeat was pounding in his ears fast and like a drum from afare. Henry gasped and closed his eyes, felt the blankets being re-arranged by her.

"Try to sleep again, Henry...I´ll stay with you..."

Her voice was soft and comforting.

At least he won´t die all alone and lonesome...

The sleep came like a wave, rolling over him and he slipped down into it within a moment.

Vicki laid her hand on his forehead, felt for the temperature. His skin was glowing with the heat of the fever or the vampire´s equivalent of a human fever. She had learned to know about how Henry Fitzroy´s body worked, but these vampires were unknown territory for her when especially it came to malfunctions…

Malfunction. The word itself would have split her face with a grin, would it not have been such a serious situation. Fortunately Rajani had no doubts and hesitations when it came to try anything. She was an open minded person and took every challenge from the scientific point of view.

Vicki pulled out her cell phone, dialing the doctor´s number. She heard the call signal on the other end and after a few seconds Dr. Mohadevan answered her call.

"Hi, Vicki…how are you? I mean…all of you?"

"I´m fine and Aidan is still sleeping as a dead one. He must have been totally exhausted. I´m a bit tired but I´ll sleep later when we got this thru, Rajani."

"How is Henry anyway?"

"He is…" Vicki watched over to the bed; "…sleeping. A bit at least. This guy is burning hot from anything like a fever, if he ever can get anything like this. Like Henry had been when this native witch attacked him after Mike shot him accidentally… Is there anything I can do for him besides washing his body with cold water? Any clue?"

"What about the i.v. running?"

"I disconnected the empty blood bag, the Ringer bottle is still running…I gave him water to drink…looks like he´s pretty thirsty…" Vicki explained. Absently she scratched the base of her pony tail with her fingers.

"Drinking water…okay. Can he drink by himself? Otherwise…" Dr. Mohadevan sounded concerned.

"I won´t force water down the throat of an unconscious man, Rajani!" Heaven, she has had a first aid education during her education as a police officer!

"I helped him with it! Henry is not unconscious, but he´s very weak. I guess he barely gets himself into the track. I´m already glad when he stays calm…we have no trouble with him hanging on the transfusions. After all what he had reacted to the table…I thought him to panic when Aidan installed the i.v.´s on him…but he didn´t. Fortunately."

"He doesn´t have these traumatic experiences Henry Fitzroy has, waking up, being tied to the cross and having a tube installed on him to drain him of all his blood…And Aidan´s son was a medic himself as Aidan told me. He should have some clues about without going into panic. As long it does not come to this cruel skinning…" Dr. Mohadevan explained.

"How far have your investigations of his blood gone?" Vicki asked. She knew that time was running out for her guest when nothing definitely happened into a direction to shoot him anything that would help.

"I´m thru with the electrophoresis and I have set up the…" she smiled at bit; "…brooding… pool! I´ll check up a first sample in one hour. My only hope is that the Fitzroy immune system is as fast as usual. Breeding antibodies isn´t the stuff a forensic lab should do. I only think about which explanation I´ll give when anybody calls in the bill…"

"Bill! What bill? The blood comes from two vampires and I doubt that they will split the bill for the power into forensics and private consultation!" Vicki shot back and shook her head.

"Yup! But there are single use materials involved and Crowley is checking the working protocols now. Guess she has some taste in it, controlling what we are doing in here to proof if everyone is busy enough! You know her! She´s a control freak! And…"

Vicki heard the door opening in the background and steps of anybody entering the lab.

"You´re gonna hide your machines with your body, Rajani!" Vicki whispered in a confidential tone.

"It´s Mac, Vicki! No worries!...Sorry…" Dr Mohadevan turned around to McCormick, her laboratory assistant; "Mac…what can I do for you?"

"Can I make use of the PCR again? Are you ready, Dr.?"

"Yeap. Of course. Be my guest, Mac!"

"Okay, thanks…Ewa needs this to be proved…We separated some DNA from a fingertip on a plastic bag, a rather less useful surface for fingerprints. But the fog chamber showed a snippet of it. All hope clings to this little bit of almost nothing…" he sighed.

"I know this."

"What?"

"All hope clinging to a bit of almost nothing!" Rajani smiled.

"With this…?" Mac directed to the experiment in the laminar flow box.

"Yeap."

"Any way…what are you doing in there? That´s blood…"

"I´m doing some tests for antibodies. An idea that came to my mind, if mixing blood with an intact immune system can modify another sample without immune capabilities to develop antibodies. It´s quite difficult. A friend of mine works on a study and she begged me to test it out for her…"

"Uh hu, that´s quite interesting! She works on the AIDS virus?"

"Yeap, kinda… I for myself am very excited to know if this works…" the doctor answered and McCormick nodded commendatory.

Vicki heard when the door closed and Rajani sighed with relief.

"Curious guy, your Mac!"

"Best he swallowed it! Not the first time I did investigations for a friend of mine. Really. He was just interested when he saw the bottles. Mac is okay."

"Good to know. I hope you´re successful with it. If ever…Henry needs the stuff and he needs it fast!"

"I know, Vic. What´s about the lesions? Can you please check for me once? Now!"

"Wait a moment…hope…I´m not gonna wake him up. I´m glad he is sleeping in the moment…He´s soo weak!"

Vicki laid the cell phone onto the nightstand and peeled the blankets back. Carefully she shoved his sweaty curls to the side, inspecting the area where the first lesion had been visible.

Obviously the lesions had become a bit more grayish and its edges had grown. She peeled the blankets back to his legs and took a closer look for what she crouched down, glasses on her nose.

On his chest and his belly where slightly darkened spots visible which hadn´t been there before, some hours ago.

"The thing at his shoulder seemed to have spread a bit and it´s more grayish than before. And he develops little spots of the same kind on his chest and belly…Looks unhealthy, Rajani! Like the galloping chick pox!"

"Okay! Thank you. I´m working on it, I´m working on it, Vicki! I´m the same way concerned as you!" Dr Mohadevan pressed out.

"I know but I don´t wanna lose this guy!" Vicki´s voice sounded urgently and she shot Henry a look. His forehead was covered with sweat and his breath came in hollow gasps which were interrupted by a sudden fit of coughing. Henry´s eyes shot open and he choked hard. Vicki bent over him, pulling him around on his right side, supporting his head with one hand, while the other went for his shoulder.

"Relax, relax Henry…don´t fight it…better you try to breath calmly…easy…easy…" her voice was soft and comforting. A quiet click behind her back indicated that the door to the bedroom was opened and she turned her head. Only to see Aidan coming in, his hand was digging through his tousled hair and he was yawning, the back of his hand put over his mouth. For a mere second she saw his eyes switching back to brown again. She was so used to the sight of bled black vampire eyes that it didn´t terrify her anymore. Mike has had his own experience with those black orbs, his personal nightmare.

God, I hope he doesn´t come over here, she thought. Then she looked up to Aidan who had come over to the bed. He looked still sleepy but probably the coughing fit had made him wake up.

"How is he? Any…?" his voice was anxious.

"Henry was sleeping until now guess this fit woke him up. The blood bag is thru, the liquid substitute is still on…Dr, Mohadevan prepares the antibody stuff. . I hope she´ll get it ready in a few hours. You..." she peeled back the blanket from Henry´s chest and directed to the skin.

Aidan gulped hard, bit his lower lip and his face went stern. Vicki saw how he obviously fought to keep his tears back. Carefully she pulled the blankets over again.

"She will do it, Aidan! There will be a chance! I know her since years and years...Rajani isn´t the one to give up! She will find a cure for Henry!" she whispered and her hand went into Aidan´s back, pushing him over to the door with soft force. To her astonishment he let it happen without any resistance. He bent over the bag that Dr. Mohadevan had left in the room, filled with medical supplies.

"What are you searching for, Aidan? You...hungry again?" Maybe he was hungry again, she thought. She didn´t know how long they had been starving and no idea how much blood these vampires needed in which chronological order. Henry Fitzroy normally drank half a liter every two nights, not later than three nights. That was the reason why he kept a stock of blood donors at hand.

"Thanks, I´m not hungry, Ms. Nelson..."

"Vicki please..." she replied in a soft tone. "Okay...I have no clue...I mean...how much blood you normally feed on...I only know about Henry Fitzroy. I mean...I´m learning this stuff all around by practical experience..." she shrugged her shoulders.

"Any minds if I would be interested how long you and Henry Fitzroy are together?" Aidan began, mostly to distract himself a bit from his deep sorrow, focussing on random stuff.

"About some three years...we first met when I researched, investigated a case of demon murder in Toronto. Mike had been on the same case, but as a detective of the TMP homicide he has a definitely other point of view for it. Mike...Detective Mike Celluci is way more...earthbound. He´s a good cop, but the problem with him is that he only believes what he is seeing. Henry is much more...open minded. He has a long running experience with the preternatural. He knows about werewolves, ghosts and demons..." She tilted her face to the side with a smile. "What else...he´s a vampire!"

"Werewolves?" Aidan hesitated then he went on; "...are there any werewolves in here? I mean...in Toronto?" His voice sounded so concerned that Vicki thought he and Henry were kind of...afraid of these creatures.

"Are you having any problems with werewolves, Aidan?" She practically knew nothing about him by now, but that he is a vampire.

"Hm, let´s say...with some certain individuals. Normally vampires like me are natural enemies to werewolves. It´s an ages old problem. But I for myself made friends with a werewolf...once-werewolf."

"Once-werewolf? What does that mean...once? Does that mean you killed him?" Vicki´s brows knitted and his mentioning made her suspicious.

Aidan shook his head no.

"No! He´s still alive and well I hope...in difference to my son..." He swallowed hard, before he went on. "Josh is...he killed his maker. The one who turned him and that made him human again...anyway. Good old curse and the maker is killed and the curse becomes effectless! Are here any werewolves in Toronto, Vicki? We´ll have to know!"

"Henry knows about a family. They live outside, away from Toronto! I think you won´t get any trouble with them, Aidan. But it has nothing to do with a curse! There´s no curse!" Vicki countered and her fingers grabbed at the base of her nose, rubbed it while she had her glasses in the other hand. Aidan noticed it. She had to be tired.

"Josh became a werewolf when he was hurt by his maker Ray. That´s like a damn infection and he turned wolf every full moon. Until he killed Ray."

"As in the legends...hm. These werewolves out there can turn at will, without the moon´s...help so to say. They are natural born werewolves, no victims of a curse or anything like that..."

"Purebreds! Oh goodness. Purebreds are the worst! They hate vampires and fight us like a plague that walks the earth! Vampires in Boston are facing their extinction by the flu virus and the purebreds add to it!"

"Jeez...that´s worse. So you also fled from the werewolves?"

"We fled from the flu basically. But I hope we won´t meet these werewolves outside of Toronto."

"These people are okay. They are old friends of Henry. No reason to be afraid of them! They definitely don´t hunt vampires! They never did!"

"For Boston werewolves it´s sport!" Not necessary to mention that vampires had put werewolves together in an arena to fight each other. Sports for vampires!

Purebred werewolves. Werewolves...purebred...

The words circled in Henry´s fever shaded mind, around and around. Purebred! They were in danger! Josh had…he had said that a purebred wolf...Aidan...he had killed the purebred´s son and the wolf was about to hunt them down!

He groaned and his fingers fumbled for the blankets. They slipped on the material, got hold onto a woolen surface and he tried to sit up. With much effort he managed it. His legs fought with the covers and he groaned again. The room around him became unsteady and fog crept from the corners, shading his sight.

Hands grabbed for his shoulders and an oval appeared in front of his eyes.

"Wolf...wolf...have to...get ou...outta here!" he mumbled desperately. A hand was laid on his forehead. Cool and soft.

"Sssshh...stay down, Henry! Here are no wolves! You´re safe in here! Safe! You got it? It´s all good...come on, lie down again...you are in a fever...you need to rest!" Vicki tried to soothe him, her arm supporting his back around the shoulders, her hand stroking his forehead and his temple. With soft force she pushed him back into the cushions. Aidan´s hands went for Henry´s ankles and he stretched his legs, shoved them down under the blankets.

God, his calves were so hot in relation to normal!

"Listen to Vicki, Henry! She´s right...you´re safe in here...You´re with friends and now lie down again and give yourself over to sleep again, Henry!" he added.

Henry stared into the face above him and finally he gave in, sinking back onto the bed. The blankets were rearranged and he sighed.

"I´m...I´m gon...na die! Die..." he gasped.

"You won´t die! Not as long as anybody like the doctor can prevent it! You have to trust into her, Henry! Remember what she said to you: you have to cling to your very life with your very will, Henry!" Aidan urged, his voice convincing, compelling.

God, he even could not manage it to compel the officer whose father he had killed! The less...how should he compel his son? Compel a vampire... Henry was so much better in it than him. He had managed it to keep this Emma in his house, as a clean source. And now...?

Aidan made up the transfusion set again, correcting the position of the slim tube that had been contorted when Henry tried to sit up.

"Okay...fixed that...Try to sleep again, Henry. We´ll stay with you..."

Vicki looked down onto this heap of misery of an unfortunate vampire. Henry´s face was pale, more pale than ever and even would be healthy for a vampire. His forehead was covered with sweat and she felt for his pulse point at the throat. Her finger found the pounding vein under the skin. She counted silently.

Ninety five.

Goodness, it was damn fast, even more when she knew him to be a vampire. Equal to Henry Fitzroy when he had been shot by Mike and curse stricken by the native version of a witch. Vicki wondered how much these creatures/beings were showing resemblance to humans or mortals. Their bodies consisted of flesh and blood, they had a beating heart and blood was running through their veins. They could bleed out, could get hurt and they could die when a stake was driven through their heart or when they were bruned up. Either by normal fire or in some cases, as with Henry Fitzroy, when they got exposed to sunlight.

The concept of werewolves hunting down vampires and vice versa wasn´t familiar to Vicki. Henry was friends since a very long time with a whole family of werewolves. There was no rivalry for food sources. Vampires fed on blood, werewolves either cooked when being in their human shape or they were hunting animals, game, in their wolfed-out shape. The concept of natural born enemies was kinda strange for her.

There would be no reason for it but by conviction. Humans pissing into human brains...common stuff. Convictions had led into wars throughout history, had led to ultimate distruction. By now vampires and werewolves made no difference in it.

Sometimes the world looked like going crazy... she thought.

Even the paranormal world.

But she had witnessed things that a healthy mind would think to be impossible or generating from the worst nightmares you can imagine.

She shook her head and turned around, took her cell phone and dialed Dr. Mohadevan´s number. The doctor reacted immediately.

"It´s me, Vicki..."

"Any problems...?" Dr. Mohadevan sounded concerned.

"Uhm...I checked his pulse...it´s pretty fast...Ninety five per minute. Does that mean he gets the same effect like me or Henry Fitzroy? I mean...his pulse speeding up related to the temperature rise? You once told me...five per degree´s increase ?"

"Maybe. Henry showed this, but to be honest I don´t know about Henry Durham...you should ask Aidan about it. Maybe he knows..."

"...´kay..." Vicki bit her lip. "Is there anything I can do for him beside sitting around and watching him toss around in his fever?"

"You can try simple calf packings..."

"Okay! I know how to do this. How far is your antibody thing?"

Dr. Mohadevan heard how nervous Vicki was despite the fact that she tried to hide it from her. But she knew Vicki since years and could find out all the fine nuances that told her what Vicki really was feeling. Vicki was a real champion in denying feelings to herself and it had complicated her relationships to Mike and now to Henry Fitzroy.

Maybe it really needed the patience of an immortal to break up her inner walls. Dr. Mohadevan was convinced that Fitzroy felt true love for Vicki. But her problem was her hesitation to return his advances.

"The antibody development is going on. Looks like I can start a first separation in the next hour, Vicki. I have to finally clean up the fractionation. I won´t risk any reaction from the patient´s side to any proteine remains of Fitzroy´s blood. Our patient is weakened enough to additionally develop any kind of allergic reaction probably. He´s a vampire but I don´t want to risk anything... His body may be incapable to cope with it. We don´t know what the virus does to his body additionally to the lesions, the fever and this kinda...uhm severe bronchitis..."

"What...what if he gets any worse because of the therapy? What are you gonna do then?"

"We have to risk it. There is no other chance now. Either it helps or he´ll die anyway! That´s it, Vicki! I´m sorry to say this but so it is!"

"Okay! We´ll wait for you! Thanks."

Vicki switched off her cell phone and laid it back on the nightstand. Aidan watched her with concern.

"What?" Vicki looked into his eyes. "Rajani said, we´ll have to wait. She´s working on it and she thinks she can prepare a first dosage over the next hour...More she can´t say by now."

"That´s more than we could hope for yesterday...Okay...you´re having some towels for wrappings? I...I need to do something simply...Did this on Henry when Josh had gotten him free from...imprisonment and he was hurt, fighting off an wound infection..."

"He was in a fever too? Something like that? High temperature?"

"Yeap, Josh said so...he cared for his wound, cleaned it up to help the healing..." Aidan nodded.

"There are towels in a shelf in the bathroom beside the sink...I´ll get you a bowl meanwhile..." Vicki directed over to the door at the side of the bedroom and Aidan went into the bathroom.

"Henry?!" she bent over him and he sighed weakly, his eyes opened to narrow slits when he tried to fix the face above him. "We will do some calf packings on you. Not much but you will feel better with it...it should help your system to cool down a bit, hm?" Vicki stroked over his forehead, her thumb wiped off a few sweaty curls.

_tbc_


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

"I´m...gonna..." he whispered.

"You won´t and I don´t wanna hear this again, Henry! You got it?" Her face was earnest and Henry felt a wave of dizziness sweeping over him, the distant details of the room disappeared in a wall of fog that grabbed for his head.

Henry groaned and Vicki felt for his temple.

"Shhh...relax, Henry...you´re in a high risen fever..."

"So...so hot...fee...ling so hot, burns...me..." he pressed out, his voice barely audible in his own ears.

"It´s the fever, Henry...that will get any better any time...I´ll right back in a minute!" Vicki tried to calm him down. His body was slightly shivering.

She went to the kitchen, searched thru the closet and took a plastic bowl from the closet below the sink. She opened the faucet, let cold water running and felt with a finger for it until it was cold enough in her opinion. She filled the bowl up to the upper edge and balanced it back to the bedroom. Aidan was waiting for her with a pack of towels and a fresh wash cloth.

"Okay. let´s go! I hope Henry is at least used to it...It´ll be damn cold in the first moment..." she mentioned the fact that the cold would be a shock for his body in the beginning. Vicki bent down, pulled back the blankets down to Henry´s feet and put them to the side.

His legs were at angle, his left arm was stretched were Dr. Mohadevan had set up the liquid substitution, his right arm was crossed over his chest, his hand clenched to a fist. She grabbed carefully for it, softly pulling his fingers open.

"Relax, Henry..." When he relaxed a bit she dipped the wash cloth in the bowl, wrung it and carefully washed the palm and the back of his hand. Went over to his left hand. "Okay...that´ll be better...relax...it will be very cold in the moment in relation to your skin...you´re pretty hot but we´ll get that down over the time..." Vicki tried to prepare him for the moment the towel would be wrapped around the calf.

Slowly she stroked with the cold and moist towel down his calf and Henry twitched and hissed with surprise. In a reflex he tried to pull his leg out of her fingers but he was too weak. He gave in helplessly and felt when his calf was lifted by cool fingers and hands wrapped a towel around it, finally putting his leg down onto the bed sheet.

He reminded something like this to be done to him when Josh had gotten him free from this damn hook at Mother´s lakeside house. He had been in a fever from the awful wound in his upper body, going from his back to his chest. It had been infected because of the lack of blood and the dirt in the cellar down there. Josh...he had done some surgery on it. Good man...

His eyes closed when the other leg was wrapped in a towel too and Vicki pulled the blankets up to his chest again.

"So...burnin...hot..." he mumbled.

"Will be better soon, Henry. Try to sleep again, you need to rest... We´ll stay with you..."

"So...hot..."

"I know..." Vicki shot Aidan a desperate look.

He grabbed her by the arm and she followed him over to the door. Outside he whispered; "Atlee told me that the fever feels like the bones burning up to ashes inside...When the doctor doesn´t come up fast with a cure..." he didn´t need to go on. Vicki knew what Aidan was about to indicate.

"Just an hour, Aidan! One hour! Not one day!" she hissed through clenched teeth.

Aidan looked to the side, then at her again. His eyes mirroring his feelings. She put a hand on his wrist in an attempt to soften her comment. "Rajani has a first dosage almost ready. She only has to clean it up, just to be safe. She´s a very responsible person! She won´t take any unnecessary risk on any of her patients...I know her, Aidan! You should trust her...Please!"

**Toronto Metropolitan Police**

Mike was digging thru the pile of files that always seemed to grow instead of becoming smaller. Kate opened the door and shoved her head through the open door.

"Mike! Come over. We have the guy put into the interrogation room! Guess, Mr. Dunno will tell us now about his connections to Mrs. Abeldaide...Dave so...you know, he can be very convincing! The thing you´re gonna boil the guy into spilling all stuff on the table..."

Mike lifted his head and his face was showing an expression of disgust.

"Don´t tell me Dave has to call in Lady Mob! Crowley is gonna be really pissed off if there´s only a hint of...illegal...strategy!"

"Lady Boss should keep her mouth shut. Or do I have you to remind of the case with the skull on the passenger´s seat? When she arranged the case in a new way to get the judge into sending the accused to Jail County!"

"That nearly broke her heart! Not only literally!"

"I know, Mike!" she smiled convincingly.

"...Kay..." Mike rose from his seat, his fingers moved through his tousled blonde hair. He grabbed his steaming cup of tea and followed her into the other room where the accused man was sitting. His hands were folded on the table and he looked at Mike and Kate, a cold smile on his face.

Mike took the seat on the opposite side of the table, putting his tea cup in front of him and Kate was leaning at the wall, her arms folded in front of her chest. She watched the guy with cold interest.

"Okay, Mr. Hutchinson! You told Detective Lam that you..." Mike began.

Crowley turned around and walked down the hallway to the small conference room after she had seen enough.

Dr. Mohadevan shook the bottle in the laminar flow. With the other hand she placed a thin glass pipette into it and with long trained experience she sucked up the red liquid, transferred it into a slim cylinder which she placed in a centrifuge.

The low sound of the centrifuge was the only sound in the laboratory. Mac had gone to the other examination room and she could work now without anybody watching too closely. Obviously he had been satisfied by the explanation she had given him.

When the centrifuge stopped she injected the liquid into a chamber where the antibodies would be purified and separated from Fitzroy´s blood cells, ensuring that none of his proteines would remain in the concentrate.

Dr. Mohadevan could only relate it to what she knew from human blood and the risk to develop an anaphylactic shock in a patient. These were vampires and she only had experience with Henry Fitzroy, had once analyzed his blood. The results had been astonishing, especially what had to do with his immune system which was able to ward off infections fast and more effective than a human could.

She urged herself to be patient when she watched the liquid going through the filter medium. Just to make use of her time she took her phone and dialed Vicki´s number.

Vicki answered the call directly.

"Vicki, I have a first dosage ready to apply now. Only a few minutes until the first fraction is cleaned up. How´s Henry?"

Vicki breathed with relief and even Rajani heard it on the other end of the line.

"We are making cold wrappings around his calves. I don´t know if it´ll work on him but he´s highly feverish..."

"Can you talk to him? Does he react to you? Or is he unconscious?"

"Henry is conscious but he´s extremely sleepy. I can barely keep him awake and I guess he has definitely problems to get it what´s going on..."

"That´s what I expected. His reactions are typical for anybody in a high risen fever, therefore he seems to make no such large difference to human beings."

"Do you think the fever will low down when you have shot him the antibodies?" Vicki asked and looked down onto Henry who was lying under the blankets, his breath hard and fast, changing between fast intakes of breath and gasping. She laid her hand on his forehead, shook her head.

"I think...rather no! If the stuff works and the antibodies are fighting the virus it is to be expected that his temperature will rise additionally. At least over a certain time...We´ll have to cope with it, Vicki..."

"Okay! That´s not exactly what I´d like to hear...but so be it...!"

So be it!

So be it!

These words had hit her in the very inner core of her heart when she had told Henry Fitzroy that she won´t go to Vancouver with him...

Had torn it to pieces.

So be it! Henry had turned around without any further word and walked into his bedroom, the doors falling shut behind him. She had stood in the living room, her heart pounding in her ears and in the silence she had heard half choked sobs from the bedroom.

Henry hadn´t contacted her over the next nights and it looked like he had simply disappeared from the surface of earth...

"Hm...when do you come over here? The...the faster...the better, Rajani...Henry looks...he really looks like crap!" Vicki brought it to the point without any hesitation, despite the fact that Henry probably would hear her comment. But he knew by himself for sure, she thought.

"These blotches...lesions...are increasing, on his body and in his face..." Vicki mumbled. Even with her RP she could see that slightly gray colored areas had developed additionally on his face. It looked like dust or dirt. Vicki hoped that it only looked like, but would not really being skin that started to turn to dust! No one wanted Henry to shrivel to a heap of dust in the bed.

"I´m ready here in a few minutes, Vicki...Additionally I´ll bring in new blood and liquid substitution. I guess he will need it. And Aidan too. How´s Aidan?" Dr Mohadevan asked.

"I´m okay, Dr.! A little bit tired but okay...Vicki gave me a place for a short nap." Aidan answered for himself when he bent over Vicki´s shoulder. "Thank you!" he whispered in her ear, a slight smile on his face. "Not for this..." Vicki replied his expression.

"Okay, Vicki...till later..."

Dr. Mohadevan switched off her phone and shoved her hands into the integrated gloves of the laminar flow again. The cleaning process had been finished and she sucked up the purified extract into an injection set.

"Okay, little ones! Your task now!"

She switched off the light in the box and carefully put the syringe into a plastic bag, putting it into her bag. Without hesitation she took five bags of blood from the fridge and three bottles of Ringer solution and Sodium chloride solution. Just in case she would have need for it to stabilize Henry. Good that Crowley would never know where to the stuff disappeared, she thought with a grin. How often in her career had she acted beyond her normal business since she had hooked up with Vicki and her vampire friend?

Mike went back to his office and Dave looked at him.

"How´s it, man?"

"Don´t ask me, Dave!" Mike grunted and threw his file on the desk. A few photos slit from it and he watched at them with disgust. Crime scene shots, showing a mutilated victim of murder. "This guy isn´t any helpful! He awkwardly insists that he had not seen when Mrs. Abeldaide entered the room! I bet he had! He´s a liar! As safe as the Amen in a church! The only friggin shit is, that without him accusing her, we can´t fix the evidence that it was her who slit this man open like a slaughtered pig!"

"Normally women use guns or poison to kill! Cutting his throat and then mutilating him isn´t the thing a profiler would normally see as an option, Mike! It´ll be damn difficult to verify her being the killer!"

"Normally! That´s all a question of what you know about women! Think of Vicki! Does she fit in the normal shape of a woman, the opinion...the way you look at her? Rather not!" Mike grunted.

"Vicki is exceptional! She doesn´t fit into any normal pattern, Mike!"

"A propos, talking of Vicki...I should pay her a visit! I talked to her today in the morning and...I don´t know on which weird case she´s working now! Rajani had been out with her last night and Vicki said, that she and Fitzroy are working on a new case and she simply needed Rajani´s opinion for it but..." Mike grunted and shoved the images together again, his face showing his annoyance.

"But you don´t believe her totally, Mike...? Ain´t you?"

"Believe or not to believe! That´s the question!" Mike´s brows knitted and he bit his lower lip when he thought of Vicki´s rude answer.

"Shortly I had been glad when she told me that Fitzroy had left for Vancouver. Then she disappeared too and the first time I saw her again, she was hanging out with him again. She looked...unhealthy, but Vicki insisted on everything being okay. She said she had been on a vacation for some time but I don´t believe her because Fitzroy was strangely silent about it. Normally this guy is overly eager with everything what has to do with her! He is straight on her tails always..."

"Mike, she had gone thru a lot of shit by the time. Maybe she took a time out for her from you AND Fitzroy! Your relationship never had been easy and maybe she simply needed some time to set things right for herself!"

"I know Vicki! She´s tough and never shows any weakness and I guess this guy had pissed into her brain thoroughly. I won´t wonder if she followed him over to Vancouver. Even her mother didn´t know where she was and Coreen had returned to the university for the time. NOBODY knew where Vicki was! Neither me nor anybody else. I suspect Fitzroy that he has

taken her away from Toronto, maybe even against her will. But she was utterly silent about the circumstances! She denied it when I put it into question!"

"Mike, Vicki came back and she acts kinda neutral! You can´t get things back like they had been before she left. You´ll have to accept it as it is, Mike!"

"Don´t give me instructions, Dave. Your relationships with women aren´t the best ones. How many did you have? Four? Five?" Mike spat at him.

"Oh man! Five! But is it my fault when a woman does not see what a good catch she made...?" Dave directed to himself with both hands.

Normally these kind of banters always put a smile on Mike´s face magically. But he was in no mood for it today.

Actually! Mood!

His mood was going straight down the drain!

And Mike didn´t want to do anything to change it. No! He enjoyed it in the very moment.

When Vicki had come back from Vancouver, which seemed to be the most reasonable explanation, she had looked pale, unhealthy and was wearing a turtleneck pullover. He suspected her to hide bite marks from him but he couldn´t evidence it. She won´t have let him.

What do I care for?

The way she had ward him off on phone in the morning, pretending to be busy with cleaning up mess in the office...and Vicki was always neatly with it, so it doesn´t fit into her. You´re a lousy liar. You have always been, Vicki! He had said this to her more than once.

I should really pay her a visit as fast as I´m ready here with the case, he thought, But this would become difficult when he fixed it onto the fact that he would drive over to her when the pile was shriveling.

This damn pile of files would never shrink.

Not as long as any soul was alive in Toronto.

And this had not begun the very moment this vampire had declared whole Toronto to be his property.

The bag was heavy when Dr. Mohadevan carried it to her car. She opened her door at the driver´s side and shoved it between driver´s seat and backseat. When she drove down the street the traffic was as usual. Toronto was a busy city and even at nighttime there were people on the streets at Downtown. Three hours until sunset. Fitzroy was sleeping in his condo on the fourteenth floor now but he would come over to Vicki when he would have woken up. He had promised it.

It took her twenty minutes to drive to Huron Street and to find a parking lot nearby. When she stopped the engine it started to rain slightly.

"So far for fine weather!" she mumbled. The last days the sun had shine rarely, starting with a foggy day and then changing to rain. It was warm but not the weather that was going to remind someone that it was still summer.

**Huron Street – Vicki Nelson´s apartment**

On the second floor she knocked at the door. Vicki had pinned a sheet of paper to the door that said that the P.I. Office was closed for private reasons.

Vicki opened the door for her and Dr. Mohadevan slipped in. Vicki hastily closed the door behind her to prevent any neighbors getting too curious. The people next to her door were used to visitors since she had begun her business.

"Good to see you, Dr. Mohadevan!" Aidan greeted her and took the heavy bag from her hands. She shot him a closer look, her eyes wandering over his face, checking it for symptoms of an infection.

"Hello! How do you feel, Aidan? Any...discomforts?" He looked tired but at least better then in the morning before he had fed.

"I´m okay. We don´t get infected by hanging out with someone who´s sick. Only if we feed on them. As far as I know it spreads only by the blood, not by sneezing or coughing, like humans do..."

"Okay. I have a first dosage ready..." She opened a cooling unit in her bag and and unpacked a sealed bag which contained an injection system as Aidan knew it from vaccinations. Ready to apply.

Dr. Mohadevan, Aidan and Vicki went over to the bedroom. The light was dimmed down to a minimum, unusual when it came to Vicki who normally preferred as much light as possible.

"I´m gonna need more light in here, Vicki. Did you dim it down for him?" she directed to Henry.

Vicki nodded;" Yeap! It looked like the light burned into his eyes...so I turned it down. Henry is sleepy over the whole day and his skin is very warm in difference to Aidan´s..."

"Hm, heightened light sensitivity...a virus effect? Let´s see..." She bent over Henry, felt for his forehead with the back of her hand. "Hm...his skin is hot...Henry?! You´re hearing me?" Rajani was waiting for his reaction, giving his fever shaded brain the time to react.

An almost inaudible groaning answered her question.

"Henry?"

"Y...yes..." His voice was weak and with much effort he managed it to open his eyes to narrow slits.

"Henry...I have something for you! You have been waiting patiently and I´m going to inject you a kind of vaccine which I have generated from your and Fitzroy´s blood...!"

Henry moaned and his lids fluttered when he tried to fix the face above him. The light was burning in his eyes and he tried to turn his head to the side in an attempt to escape the light, but a cool hand was hindering him with soft force.

"Please open your eyes, Henry! I won´t harm you...just have to check this up..." Dr. Mohadevan begged and with a long moan Henry opened his lids. She carefully fixed the lids of one eye with her fingers and with a slim mag-lite she lit into his eye.

Henry hissed and twitched under the bright glare. Only a short moment, then it was dark again.

"I´m sorry, Henry...all okay...it´s okay..." Her voice calm and soothing. She turned around to Vicki who was standing right behind her. "He´s extremely sensitive to the light. His cornea is okay but the conjunctiva is reddened...I guess it´s an inflammation by the virus..."

"Is that dangerous? I mean..if it spreads over to the cornea he may be losing his eyesight..."

Vicki looked at Henry who had closed his eyes again under the bright light from the lamp under the ceiling.

"Normally not. It´s a flu virus, not something like a herpes zoster virus that can infect the cornea." The doctor turned back to Henry and carefully peeled down the blankets, baring his body. She bent deeper and inspected his skin from throat to feet.

Henry´s skin was covered with sweat and there were darkened areas which were gray colored and looked like his skin was covered with little spots of dust or dirt. She carefully scratched at one of them to check if it would bleed. Under the gray layer the skin started to bleed, little spots of blood drops. That looked alive at least, she thought.

"What did you find about them..?" Vicki asked, reminding that Rajani had taken a sample before.

"The cells are infected with the virus. I could only extract virus RNA from them. Normally the virus is only docking to mucosa cells, infiltrating the core and programming it to reproduce virus material. This runs as long as the cell is able to generate flu virus before the apoptosis starts, the cellular death. Obviously the flu virus keeps the cell alive as long as it´ll reproduce viruses correctly. The very moment this mechanism doesn´t work correctly anymore, the reproduction is stopped by starting the cell´s self destruction mechanism. That´s a more simplified way to explain it...naturally it´s much more complicated but this is science about virus... What I wonder about is why the skin cells are involved in this process in vampires. This looks like what we know from measles for example."

"You don´t think it can be a mixed infection?" Vicki suggested.

"No, only flu RNA. For sure."

"Okay?!" Vicki sounded uncertain but she was a former police detective, no scientist.

The doctor nodded and sat down beside Henry. He weakly tried to move aside but she laid her right hand at his rib cage.

"Sssshhh...don´t move away, Henry. It´s okay..." Her hand went over his lower belly, felt for his groins. He twitched under her fingers.  
"Is there any pain? Henry?"

"No..pe..."

"Good..." She felt over his lymph nodes, nodded then. "Slightly hardened as far as I can say that...his immune system is involved but obviously it lacks of an effective weapon against the virus. But that he´ll get from me when I inject the serum into his system..."

Henry stared at her, relaxing a bit when her hands went upwards again. He heard her words but the room´s walls were moving in, becoming more sharp, and then moving away again, dissolving into a wavering mass of fog. He moaned when a wave of dizziness swept over him and he got the feeling of helplessly rolling around in the bed despite the fact that he was lying quietly. He felt fingers moving over his skin that was overly sensitive and slightly hurting since the flu got him. The fingers slipped down between his legs, resting on the inner side of his thighs. Dr. Mohadevan´s face was above him in a short distance. Her dark brown eyes were looking at him and her lips moved.

With much effort he could make out the words. Her voice was soft and calm. Like that of a good nurse or that of the good doctor. It would have made him smile if he would have been able to it. But a new fit of coughing rose in his chest and he tried to turn his face away. The fingers left his inner thigh and went up to his shoulders, helping him to turn to the side.

"Your skin is way too warm, Henry...oh uh...come on, I´ll help you to turn over to the side...don´t fight it, Henry...relax...relax."

He choked and coughed, was gasping when he tried to breathe. After a while his breathing became more calm when the fit subsided. His throat was burning and his chest was on fire, the muscles and the ribs hurting.

Dr. Mohadevan saw it in his face how much these coughing fits were exhausting him additionally.

"Better now, Henry? It´s better when you´re lying on the side instead of the back..." she looked at Aidan; "When this goes on he will probably need anything against the coughing..."

Dr. Mohadevan exchanged the bottle on the hook against a new one, arranging the slim tube.

"That will you provide with water and minerals. Your body needs liquid substitution cuz the fever is drying you out..."

Henry´s answer was almost inaudible when he gasped a half choked yes.

Rajani nodded and covered Henry´s body with the blankets.

Then she prepared the injection.

"Okay, I´ll inject him the serum now! We´ll have to watch over him and I´ll do this slowly, just in case to be safe. I have absolute no experience in this with vampires..." she smiled slightly but it looked tensed.

She took Henry´s right arm where the butterfly was still in his vein, connected the syringe with it and took a deep breath to relax herself. She opened the tie around his arm and slowly injected a first portion of the serum. Her free hand went for Henry´s pulse point, counting.

Henry kept quiet and after a while she shot him a second portion. Aidan was waiting anxiously, watching his son with deep concern, waiting for any reaction. Hopefully he won´t show any...allergic reaction. His hands were clenched to fists and he was chewing on his lower lip.

"Is...is he...okay...?" he pressed out.

"Henry´s pulse is steady...we´ll have to wait! I´m as careful as possible, Aidan..." she whispered, her finger resting on Henry´s throat. After two minutes she injected the rest of the serum and disconnected the needle. She laid the syringe onto the nightstand.

"Okay Henry...now we have to wait...I´ll stay with you, don´t worry, hm...?" she stroked his forehead and his temple with her hand.

Henry sighed and his eyes closed. His breath became more calm when he obviously was drifting into sleep again.

"All these lesions...they have multiplied over the day...he definitely hasn´t had them all over his body in the morning when you left, Rajani..." Vicki whispered into her ear.

"I can only hope that the antibodies will do and then the lesions should stop and finally disappear..." Dr. Mohadevan looked very concerned and thoughtfully.

"You...uhm, you don´t have any clue what from we´ll see if it works on him, ain´t you?"

"To be honest; No! Henry is a vampire and I even can´t relate him with a human suffering from diphtheria when it comes to the question how much time it needs until we´ll see any improvement by the serum..."

"What about blood, Rajani? Would it help if he gets more of it? Henry...Henry Fitzroy... needed it to heal after Mendoza got him!" Vicki looked from Rajani to Aidan. She didn´t feel safe about Henry Durham´s needs due to a lack of experience with these vampires. Maybe it helped, maybe not, to relate them to Henry Fitzroy. At least parts of their blood were compatible to each other as Rajani suggested. Otherwise she won´t have dared to mix their blood in an attempt to generate a cure for Henry Durham.

Henry Fitzroy usually needed half a liter each second night and she had seen when Rajani had provided Henry Durham with a whole bag of blood via an i.v. Set.

"Henry had...drunken...a lot of blood after he was nearly killed in the skinning...He..." Aidan stopped when the images of the so fatally gone wrong feeding shot up in him from the closets of his mind, where they had been hidden so firmly. The longer you´re gonna live the more time you get to remind everything, he thought and turned his face away from Vicki.

"We heal when we feed on enough blood..." he mumbled.

"What is enough blood? How much?" Vicki insisted. She was used to vampires even when Mike had warned her about, the same as Henry had done;

_"__Mm Hmm. A detective brain at work again. Is that what it´s like being in a relationship with you? Coffee and interrogation in the morning?" Vicki had looked at him; "What´s the matter? Afraid you couldn´t stand the scrutiny?"_

_"__I´ve lived long enough that I don´t have to answer to anyone."_

_"__Hm, and that´s what it´s like being in a relationship with you?"_

_"__Fine, read my books. Sniff into the secrets of my inner life. But be careful how deep vou dig, Vicki. It can become a dark trip..." Henry had told her when she had tried to ask for more information about him when they started to hook up. Very fast she did understand that her common investigation techniques Detective-style didn´t fit on him..._

Mike had become angry about her mixing up so disregardful with a...killer, "He´s a killer, plain and simple!" He had bashed her for forgetting that Henry is a vampire and that behind his human surface the monster would be hiding and it would only need a little trigger to set the beast free and break thru the human surface. A little trigger and he would kill again. Kill her...

Finally getting tired of his over protectively behavior she had chewed him out, taking refuge her usual way by a; That´s none of your business, Mike!

Vicki looked straight into Aidan´s eyes, waiting for his answer.

"A liter, two...maybe more..." Aidan mumbled absently when his look turned back to his son who was lying on the bed, his breath fast and gasping.

"So you´re gonna drain a human of all his blood!" Vicki stated, her voice stern.

"What?"

Aidan seemed to wake up from his thoughts. Then he reminded what Vicki had asked him; "No! I won´t...we...I...split up on a...number...a row...of donors. Or feeding on blood bags...no such sustaining as from a...a living source, but...we can live on it. And survive..."

Vicki nodded thoughtfully.

"I hope Mike isn´t to show up here by now. He won´t like the fact of any other vampires being in Toronto...As far as I know him..." Dr. Mohadevan whispered.

"He should bite his own ass. It´s none of his business! Second; no one is to die here and so he won´t have to be involved!" Vicki spat back angrily. The less about the fact that Rajani mentioned the point of vampires being here, but the more about the fact that she was angry with Mike because he had been that insisting on phone today.

These vampires were staying here because Henry had given his permission for it and so it was Henry´s business, and none of Mike to care about. Mike should stay out of it, goddamn hell, she thought.

"Mike shall brush up his own dirt, not mine or Henry´s!"

"Gee...Vicki, what happened?" Rajani laid a hand on Vicki´s wrist, comforting and well meant.

"He called in today, right after you and Henry left. He made the interrogation Detective at all but I finished him off despite he threatened to pay me a visit! I don´t need any control freak á la Celluci here! I can care for myself and it´s none of his business anymore what I and Henry are working on. As long as we won´t ask for his help. I really hate it when he sticks around on my tail like cow poop, Rajani..."

"Vicki, maybe you should..." Dr. Mohadevan began carefully. She didn´t want to annoy Vicki and so she tried to give her voice a soft timbre, that of a dear friend and not that of a doctor.

"I don´t need to rest! I´m fully awake!" Vicki replied with a stare. Like as to verify it she rubbed the base of her nose and put her glasses on again.

"But Dr. Mohadevan is back again and she will watch over Henry, Vicki...you have done so much for us by now and maybe you should take some time for you and rest a bit!" Aidan tried to convince Vicki into taking a rest. She obviously had been up all night long as far as he could see and she looked tired. He could see it from her face and the fact that she blinked with her eyes. The way how she rubbed her nose told him that she might have problems with her eyes.

"Vicki, please! You told me I should rest and you were right with it. Now it´s your turn, hm?" Aidan tried to sound conciliatory and finally Vicki nodded slightly.

"Maybe you´re right...I´ll do but only a short rest..." She looked into Aidan´s eyes, expecting them to be bled black, but they were showing a warm dark brown. She was certain that he could do the other way around but she also felt certain about being resistant even to his vampire skills.

Aidan smiled; "We´ll see..."

"And...! Aidan, don´t even dare to try your tricks on me! I´m resistant to your kind of manipulation! I´m...vampire proof!" she smiled slightly at him.

Aidan rose his hands in a gesture of innocence, replying her smile; "I didn´t even try, Vicki. It is only a recommendation because you really look tired..."

A moment she kept silent as if she lacked of an answer. A rare moment Fitzroy would have said, Vicki running out of a biting answer; almost unknown! But maybe she only had gotten it that Aidan had no ulterior motives, he simply cared about the woman who had decided to invite them in into her home, by this giving up the safety her home represented as long as she didn´t let them in. The very moment Fitzroy had told her that they had to be invited in by a human owner to enter the rooms, he had exposed one of their vulnerabilities. The logical thing was that they could be uninvited again as well, leading to their destruction if they won´t make it outside fast enough.

And especially Henry was in no shape for a fast OUT.

Instead of an answer Vicki simply nodded and took her glasses of. She opened the door and left the bedroom, heading for the large couch in her living room, determined to take a short nap only.

She woke up with a start when a hand carefully touched her temple, shoving itself between her head and the cushion she was resting on. A thumb stroked over her forehead and she opened her eyes, blinking in the dim light.

"Uhm...what? What happened?" Suddenly she was fully awake when she remembered that she wasn´t all alone in her home and what was the reason for this situation.

Henry Fitzroy bent over her, he smiled at her.

"Sshh, it´s okay, Vicki. I came over here two minutes ago...to watch for you and your guests."

"Guests? Hospital would rather meet it, Henry..." Vicki sat up and rubbed thru her tousled hair. Her fingers went for the back of her head and she wrung a tie around it to form a ponytail.

"Hospital?" Henry suddenly sounded concerned. "Is...is Aidan sick too now?"

"No´he´s okay. But keeping or hiding a sick person in your home who doesn´t belong to the household in general, that makes kinda hospital of your home! Rajani is in the bedroom..."

"Okay, let´s have a closer look..." Fitzroy directed to the door that led to the bedroom.

The room he had entered the first time when she had been preparing to wait for Emmanuel, the incubus. "Are you receptive enough? Open enough for him?" he had asked her after he had kissed her and Mike had kinda become jealous, complaining that Henry had been a little bit too eager to prepare Vicki.

Vicki moved herself away from the couch, her hand rubbing over her eyes. She had slept more deep than she had intended. Obviously her body had taken from her what he needed. She had been up the night before and only a few hours of sleep before she had stood up again for the day. And in the night Henry´s call had made her plans for the night going down the drain. She yawned and walked over to her bedroom.

"Looks you didn´t get enough sleep, Vicki!" Henry Fitzroy commented her condition when her hand went up to cover her mouth.

"Ya´ know me, Henry! Just a shot of coffee and I´m up again for everything!" she warded off his concern.

Henry Durham was lying on the bed, on his right side. The blankets were pulled back and Dr. Mohadevan was wiping his calves with a cold wash cloth. Vicki saw that Henry was slightly shivering. She bent over him and her hand stroked over his cheek, carefully avoiding the gray colored areas.

His cheek was burning hot in relation to his normally rather cool skin. She heard his teeth chattering with the shivering.

"Rajani, is his temperature rising again? The fever is going up?" Vicki looked at the doctor while her hand cupped the hot cheek. Henry moaned and he leaned his cheek against her hand as if he unintentionally was searching for some soothing cooling.

"Yeap, the fever is rising...I don´t know to which level and I don´t know how his body will react to the higher temperature..."

"What can happen to him, Rajani? He´s an adult and..."

"He can probably lose consciousness if the temperature goes too high and his body pulls the emergency brake. I dunno if he can get febrile seizures...normally this happens only in children...but here...nothing will be certain in general."

"He never has had any seizures!" Aidan protested and stepped nearer.

"Had he ever been in such a high risen fever, Aidan?" Dr. Mohadevan asked.

"Henry has had fever, as I told...I mentioned before, Dr.!"

"Any of this level?" her head tilted to the side, indicating the nightstand where she had put the thermometer on. Aidan followed her glance and read the scale.

"97.9°F...damn high..." he mumbled.

"It is! We have to go on with the calf packing...I hope it won´t go higher..." the doctor turned around and dipped the towels into the bowl with cold water.

"Vicki, pull back the blankets please..." Dr. Mohadevan wrung the towels and bent over Henry, ready to wrap the first one around his leg.

The sun was burning hot and he crawled over the dry sand, his fingers digging into the ground when he pulled himself forward not with strength but with his very will. The skin of his fingers was rubbed off and the tips were covered in blood. The hunger was raging within him, iron claws shaking the bars of the cage that he had built up around his heart. The bars were the only barrier what kept him from ripping his victims apart when his teeth dug into the warm flesh and his gullet was filled with their blood.

He was hungry, so hungry…

Suren stared at him and he was on fire, moaning, gasping, his moans growing louder until the pain, the excruciating pain was consuming him and he felt when his mouth opened and the screams roared out between his lips. Overwhelming her voice and he could only see her lips moving when she bent deeper, grabbing for his body, lifting him from the ground and he screamed on the edge to unconsciousness.

He felt himself lifted up, hovering through the air and then a glowing hot sword broke through his shoulders, his back and finally its tip protruded from his chest when he was pushed down onto the hook, his feet dangling a feet over the ground.

Henry screamed and screamed until his voice broke and his chin fell onto his chest. His skin…he was covered in blood that dripped down to the ground, building up thin rivulets which followed the curves and the slight lowering of the ground beneath. His eyes were fixed onto the life that ran from his body and from feet upwards his body slowly covered with grayish blotches that crept up to his chest with eager fingers. When they reached his throat they were spreading around his neck, turning into tendrils like wire, closing more and more in, constricting his throat like iron. He started to cough, choking and fighting for breath but the fingers turned iron. From the fingers a glowing heat spread over his body, setting every limb, every muscle and every bone ablaze, consuming his bones and his flesh.

He buckled and twitched, his groans deep and animalistic, turning into groans of agonizing pain when…

…hands grabbed for his shoulders and hips, digging deep into the hot flesh, squeezing the blood out of the skinless muscles. Blood was under him, soaking the ground and let him swim in a thick, warm and sticky liquid.

Henry screamed with fear, desperately fighting to get free but with no success.

His panic stricken voice was pounding in his ears when he was forced down into the wetness. His limbs didn´t obey and he felt like falling apart when his muscles threatened to be ripped into pieces.

"Hold him down! Get him down for heaven´s sake!" Dr. Mohadevan shouted and she and Vicki grabbed for Henry´s legs and arms, trying to keep him down onto the sheets. The twitching and buckling suddenly turned into uncontrollable spasms.

Henry threw his head from one side to the other, the muscles in his body tensed and his teeth were clenched, his back sagging so that he was lying on his head and his heels only.

Vicki tried to keep him down when Dr. Mohadevan´s hands let go.

"Don´t, don´t do that, Vicki! He´s going into a seizure! Let him go! If you try to fix him you can hurt him seriously!"

Vicki took her hands back when Rajani disconnected the tube from the infusion set to prevent Henry from getting strangled into it. Dr. Mohadevan stared at him a moment, than she made a decision.

"Aidan, get me my bag! Fast! I need the diazepam ampoules!"

She didn´t know if it would work on a vampire but there was no time for thinking it over.

Aidan was fast, vampire speed. He was back with a small box and a syringe and a needle, gave it to the doctor.

"No! Prepare me an injection, Aidan! I have no hand free!"

"Okay!" Aidan didn´t hesitate a moment. With swift fingers he pulled up the solution into the syringe and handed it over to Dr. Mohadevan.

There was no time to search for a vein, to ligate the vein and set the injection as usual, slowly and carefully. Henry was in spasms and tossing around on the bed and so she grabbed the syringe like a dagger and simply drove it into that vein that was barely to miss by any means…

…the carotid artery.

Her thumb pushed the plunger down, shooting the whole dosage into Henry´s system at once.

She had absolutely no clue how it would work, the less if Henry´s body would be able to cope with the stuff. But there was no time to be lost because otherwise Henry could hurt himself in the spasms or his still weakened system might go into shock.

Dr. Mohadevan stared at Henry, she almost didn´t dare to breathe, watching him warily.

"I hope it´s no allergic reaction or any…poisoning or any crap like that…" She turned over to Aidan who was standing beside her, his hands clenched to fists, his eyes fixed onto his groaning son. "Did he ever have any seizures in his vampire state or, more important, in his mortal lifetime?"

"None I know from…I…I have only known him shortly before I turned him…when we met in the military field hospital in 1918…Never talked about any…health probs. Henry had been in a fever before, when Josh has gotten him out of a cellar…"

"Josh?"

"Josh is my…our friend. In Boston. He´s a nurse too and Henry had been in a terrible condition when we got him free. A deep wound through his chest and…"

Dr. Mohadevan became attentively with the word through. Her brows knitted.

"Through? You didn´t mean IN?...Uhm, he was…shot?" she indicated a rather possible option.

"No!" Aidan shook his head no: "Not shot, he…they had him hung from…a hook. Josh meant that friggin thing had gone right thru his upper body, from back to the front. They had hung him like a damn piece of meat in a damn slaughterhouse! But Mother is ashes! Finally! The damn flu got her and this is good so, for some more reasons!" Aidan spat out the words, his voice full of contempt and hatred.

"Oh dear God!" she whispered.

As a forensic she had seen a lot and human cruelty seemed to be unlimited. Although the facts made her cringe with pity she went back to doctor´s business immediately. She had to fix on Henry as her patient now, blanking all surroundings out that would distract her from the actual case.

Dr. Mohadevan bent down over Henry, her hands going for his temples and she tried to fix his face between her hands, stopping him from tossing his head around wildly. Aidan watched her with concern. Henry was vamped-out in his spasms, his eyes bled black, his fangs extended, all unintentionally, caused by his condition and Aidan had doubts that Henry would have any perceptiveness now.

The groaning went on, also when the groans subsided into moaning and gasping. The doctor seemed to have no fear of being bitten. Maybe she was used to vampires in a rather…uncontrollable… condition. Despite it he bent down to her, his hands going for Henry´s legs, carefully pressing them into the rumpled sheets.

"Be careful please…I don´t wanna you being bitten, Dr.! Henry is…he has no control now!"

"I know, Aidan…" she nodded without turning her face to him, concentrating on Henry and on her hands on his glowing hot temples.

"I guess it´s the fever! He´s kinda burning hot. I have to take his temperature when he´ll be calm again later…"

Her fingers stroked over the temples, using soft pressure, no force, attempted to calm him down a bit, using old techniques she knew from Yoga and Ayurveda. Her voice went down to a mumbling, soft and insistent.

"Henry…easy, easy, relax…it´s all good! Everything will be good in no time…relax…relax…all good, there´s no reason to worry…you´re with friends…" She went on and on, doubting if he ever could hear her, the less understand her. His mind, his brain, was shaded with the high risen fever and his body had gone into overdrive by the high temperature. It was strange that an adult man could suffer from some kind of febrile seizure or convulsions. Normally that was restricted to babies and children less than five years old.

If the flu virus hadn´t done some damage to his brain, his cerebral structure, what caused a kind of epileptic seizure, it had to be a seizure caused by an abnormal temperature regulation in the connected brain area.

Henry was a vampire and in vampires nothing seemed to be certain until she could test it out for verification.

A pair of hands came in from the other side of the bed when Fitzroy had taken over Vicki´s position at the bedside. He put his hands on Henry´s arms, being aware to be careful how much of his vampire strength would be necessary. He had learned to dose his physical strength the hard way when he unintentionally snapped the neck of his first, unwilling, victim. Vicki was a tough woman and she could handle a lot and Fitzroy generally was careful with woman. Vampires were so much stronger than humans, mortals and there could be damage done so easily, a muscle torn, a bone be broken…when he wasn´t careful at all. The vampire´s stamina in bed was legendary and he had to be patient and considerate, even when Vicki could take a lot.

Fitzroy felt the hot skin under his fingers, hot in relation to his own lower than human temperature, and even pretty warm in relation to a human. Henry has to be in a damn high fever and Rajani seems to be right with a fever induced seizure, he thought.

Dr. Mohadevan shook her head no to him.

"Don´t do this, Henry! He might not be used to you in his feverish condition and I don´t wanna have here any…bed fights. Aidan and me, we can handle him. You can help me when you can prepare another transfusion of blood for him, please!"

Henry buckled under the hands, his face torn with exhaustion and effort. His limbs were trembling and she felt that his muscles were hard with tension. Dr. Mohadevan waited for the diazepam to work, if ever…on him. No practical experience. She sighed and grabbed for his left shoulder and his left hip, pulling him over sideward carefully, over to his right side into a stabilized position.

"Vicki, I need tissues!" she ordered.

Vicki gave her some kitchen paper and Rajani bent down, her fingers went for Henry´s mouth that was halfway open. Despite the fact that his fangs were down she maneuvered her fingers between his lips, wiping through his mouth cavity, cleaning it from viscous saliva. Henry´s breath came in hard gasps, fast and flat. He trembled uncontrollable under her hands.

"Goodness, Rajani! Be careful!" Vicki warned her;"He´s gonna bite you anyway unintended! He´s in goddamn cramps and can hurt you!"

"I know, I know, but he chokes on his own saliva! I hope…Aidan!" she lifted her head a bit to look up into Aidan´s face that was also torn with tension, his out of concern for his son…

"Yeap…?"

"My bag! I need my bag here, please! The slim penlight from it! Hurry please!" she urged him. She was not sure if it was any over reacting to the antibodies and if Henry could probably die by suffocation induced by some allergic reaction.

Aidan was fast!

Within a second he was back with the large bag, kneeling on the ground and digging through it. He reached the lamp to Dr. Mohadevan and she lit into Henry´s mouth for what she had to crouch beside the bed. Aidan had experience in the emergency room of the Suffolk County…not the first time he was ordered to assist!

"Any…obstructions…?" he asked warily.

Henry was barely breathing and the doctor felt for his pulse with one finger.

It was fast and very flat.

"Crap! Henry is down to limit! I need you to help me, Aidan! Guess you know what to do? So…!"

The violent spasms were subsiding but the rasping breathing went on. Would Henry have been mortal, Rajani would have suggested that he was going into some obstructive breathing disorder, caused by whatsoever. His skin color was simply unhealthy and grayish with shades of blue. His chest hived with the intake of air and he choked on the saliva.

"Okay! There´s no other choice! Aidan!"

She directed to the bag.

"Henry can barely breathe! We have to change this! Give me an endotracheal *tube…the thin one!" (* a tubular device inserted into the wind pipe to enable a person to breathe when there´s a handicap in the air passages) she ordered and Vicki stared at her with widened eyes, her hand moving up to cover her mouth. Fitzroy who had stepped back from the bed to give the doctor some space heard Vicki mumble a suppressed "Oh my god…"

Vicki felt hands on her shoulders, soft and caressing and a cool breath streamed over her ear when Fitzroy bent over her shoulder and he whispered; "It´ll be okay! She knows what to do best, Vicki! That looks more terrifying as it is! Henry will be okay with it…"

Vicki nodded and let herself being led over to the other side of the bedroom. She watched over from her position, her face stern.

"Okay…gimme a helping hand, Aidan!" Dr Mohadevan began and carefully they turned Henry over onto his back again. Aidan withdrew the cushions and laid both hands on Henry´s temples, bending over his head in the neck and fixing it. He bent over his son who was staring at him. Aidan was not sure if Henry had any receptiveness by now.

"It´s all good Henry…all good! We won´t hurt you…no harm. Relax…" his voice was calm and compelling.

Henry´s chest hived with the heavy intake of breath, rasping hoarse noises came out between his lips, his mouth wide open when his body fought for air. The spasms had vanished at least, maybe from the injection.

"You ready?" Dr Mohadevan asked shortly, just to be safe.

"Yup!"

She nodded and her left hand grabbed for Henry´s chin, fixing it when with her right hand she carefully inserted the tube into his wind-pipe.

Aidan fixed his head when Henry twitched a bit, his bare toes curling from tension under the hands at his body.

"Ssshhh…relax…relax…" Aidan mumbled repeatedly.

Henry was almost unconscious from the seizure. He felt strong hands onto his body and then something was penetrating his wind-pipe. He fought for air and twitched but he had no strength to ward off whatever it was. Cool metal that slit into him and he felt panic rising when breathing switched from barely possible to impossible for a moment.

He had to get that out! Out!

He would die! He could not breathe and the thing into him slit deeper. Desperately and out of instinct he wanted to turn over, his fingers dug into the softness of the sheets under him and he moaned when he felt pain in his throat.

"Keep him down, Aidan! I can´t…get that…"

Finally it was over.

Beside the pain a gush of air streamed into his wind-pipe, his lungs and he could breathe again. The desperate fighting for air subsided and breathing became much easier. He could breathe without effort and he relaxed a bit.

Aidan felt how his son relaxed under his hands when the tube was completely inserted.

"Okay, Henry! It´s all good now…yeah…stay calm…you´ll get air now. You will be able to breathe…it´s all okay…" Aidan´s right hand stroked the hot temple and Henry´s panic stricken expression faded into the signs of total exhaustion when the diazepam relaxed his muscles and calmed down his hectically breathing and fighting for air, now that the tube kept his airway free.

A dark face appeared over him.

Must be the doctor. But he was not sure about. He was sure about almost nothing but that he was going to die!

"Henry! Henry…can you hear me? If so…close your fingers around my hand once!"

She grabbed for his hot fingers and slowly he closed his fingers around hers, weakly and barely to be felt. But there was one clinging and his fingers relaxed again.

"Okay! You won´t be able to speak with the tube, but you can breathe through it! Try to relax as much as possible, Henry!" her voice was soft and calm and she gave his mind time to get things in a row. "Hm…? Calm down…" her face gave the hint of a smile when she saw that he seemed to relax a bit. His breathing became calmer when the fight for air subsided. A hand stroked his temple, a hand in surgical gloves. Dr. Mohadevan looked over to Vicki and their eyes met. She saw Vick´s concerned and a bit skeptical facial expression. Despite the fact that it wasn´t for Henry Fitzroy the tough private investigator seemed to have caring feelings for her guest, at least those of the quality of a good nurse.

"He´ll be okay, Vicki. In the moment at least."

"Okay. But what is this? Did he get some allergic reaction to the antibodies or is it just this friggin fever?"

"I guess it´s the fever. The seizure caused his breathing problems…Normally I only know this in children, a fever seizure causing shortage of breath. The abnormal regulation of his temperature handicaps his system´s receptiveness for carbon dioxide and oxygen… Obviously his body tried to reduce all functions to a minimum and I can only relate this with humans, mortals. But it looks like a vampire´s body isn´t so much different, at least they have a body of flesh and blood…so I don´t wonder about, from a medical point of view."

"You mean…for you he´s simply a patient like any patient!?"

"Yeap! Indeed…" She bent back over Henry, her hand went into his neck, carefully lifting his head a bit and she placed a slim cushion under his neck.

"That will be better…relax and try to sleep now, Henry. The injection that I gave you will help you to sleep…Your body needs more than a simple rest…" She stroked his temple with her fingers; "I´ll stay here, at your side! Don´t worry, Henry. I`ll care for you…"

His fingers closed around her hand and his eyes which were turned pitch black tried to fix her friendly face. He couldn´t speak and he simply was too weak, even if he would have been able if not for the tube in his airway.

"Is there any pain, Henry?"

It was necessary to find out if he was suffering from any pain, especially from the inserted tube.

The fingers closed twice.

"Okay…" she felt over his limbs and to her satisfaction the diazepam seemed to work at least. The tension in his muscles had subsided and his breath came more regular now without those hectic gasping and fighting for air. "I`m going on now with the cold wrappings around your calves…! We have to lower down your temperature!" Dr. Mohadevan turned over and looked at Aidan who was standing right behind her.

Oops! She hadn´t registered it that he had closed in. These vampires were always surprising! Irrespective the fact that she was, to a large degree, used now to them in general since Henry Fitzroy had hooked up with Vicki a few years ago.

Aidan saw her expression of surprise and he smiled an excuse.

"Sorry, didn´t want to startle you, Dr.!"

"You didn´t. At least…not right away. I was distracted by Henry so I didn´t listen…uhm …behind me…"

Aidan nodded. He had been so concerned about Henry´s condition that he hadn´t paid attention about if he was using his vampire skills out of habit.

"I need to take his temperature! Aidan, would you please…" she directed to the thermometer on the nightstand.

"Of course, Dr." Carefully he moved the thermometer under Henry´s armpit. When the beep showed that the measurement had finished, he pulled it off and read the scale.

"Henry is in a real high risen fever! 98,6° F…pretty high…way too much for a vampire!" he grunted. Dr. Mohadevan shot the scale a look, her brows knitting when she saw the result by herself.

"No wonder he went into a seizure…I only hope that this won´t repeat! He is weakened enough and another fit…I can´t put him into any hospital where I would have all medical equipment in case that his system goes into collapse…" she sounded more than thoughtful.

"Dr., I´m sorry but don´t mix him up with your usual patients. We are…vampires, no human beings…Not anymore!"

She turned her face to him, her expression stern and determined; "I know! But the very moment when you and Henry Fitzroy entered my laboratory, searching for help for your son, he became my patient. I´m working as a forensic for the Toronto Police but first and foremost I´m a doctor! I have sworn to help and heal people if any Hippocratic Oath has any meaning for you, Aidan! And that´s still doing despite the fact that most of my clients are pretty dead. And it doesn´t matter to me HOW alive one of my patients is as long as there´s ANY life in him!"

She could read the surprise in his face and obviously there hadn´t been much women in his life who were able to stump him.

Good to know she thought.

But the fact that he kept silent and friendly though meant that he had a natural hesitation to treat women rudely. A view to the side showed her that Fitzroy was watching the other vampire with a calm but warily attention.

Fitzroy was always the man/vampire a woman would have his back in any trouble, the more when it came to confront any insult or impudence. Or the dark forces of evil.

She kept silent for a moment and after that she turned back to Henry, watching him with a slight concern.

She saw how his lids with the long lashes closed after he had tried to fix her under narrow slits.

"Yup, sleep…Henry, sleep. When you wake up you´ll feel any better…"

By mere reflex a gurgling sound came out of Henry´s throat, inaudible, his eyes closed finally.

"Okay…good boy!" she smiled and looked into Aidan´s eyes. His look teased her to give off a joke.

"Look! Even a forensic is capable of some compelling skills. Next time I should try them on Vicki!" she smiled; "Looks like I´m learning from the dead and undead. No companionship for a child, my Mom would have said if she would know about you guys. Henry Fitzroy tried on Vicki and he had a rough time with it!"

"Vicki is the most stubborn woman I ever met!" Fitzroy added with a slight smile. And he stroked over Vicki´s right forearm and she couldn´t hide a grin for what she had to turn her face to him because of her RP…

…Making her growling inwardly about her bad eyes.

Vicki had become used to turn her face in order to look at someone directly but she had developed a hiding thing to prevent any opponents from becoming aware of her handicap; instead of turning her face she turned over completely as casually, hiding by this her tunnel vision caused by the progressive degeneration of her retina. And as if this wasn´t enough she was shortsighted additionally.

When Henry found out about her disease he simply had mentioned that she should stay away from night-time investigations. He never made any big deal of it, accepting it the same way he accepted that she was not that fast as a vampire when it came to running.

The room was shaded with fog and his eyesight became uncertain when his lids fluttered. The face above him turned into a slightly colored oval, the dark brown buck eyes melting into it. His lids closed and he tried to relax, the hard tube in his wind-pipe made breathing easier but he had to lie flat on his back, with a slim cushion under his neck. The slowly warming metal in his throat was uncomfortable but not that unbearable as the breathing problems.

Cool hands were all over his body and under the drifting into sleep he heard the sounds of dripping water in a bowl, followed…

_tbc_


	6. Chapter 6

_Annotation_; Maybe some of you remember that for episode #4 of Being Human US Season 3 promo shots with Aidan and Henry in a World War One scenario flashback were set up, but we never got to know what happened in the flashback! Here we go:

_Chapter 6_

_…__by a large shade which was hovering above him. A dark figure with uneasy shape that moved nearer. He couldn´t make out any form, only a large black shape that was wavering like a liquid. When it moved nearer the unstructured darkness turned into something like a big bird or bat. A hissing sound escaped its mouth when jaws opened and Henry tried to crawl away, backwards, out of the range of this…monster._

_With no success._

_The figure closed in and in the opening of the lipless and leathery jaws fangs appeared, glistening with saliva. The thing bent over him, its head bent down to his helplessly struggling body what was pressed against the wall in his back. In panic he tried to kick against the legs of this…thing._

_The bat hissed and his head shot down, fangs bared and the mouth wide open, closing in for the deadly bite. Henry screamed and it growled and the wings, large leathery sails, shot down, the claws on their tips sharp and long. He kicked it against the belly but the thing growled and crouched down, the dripping mouth hole only inches away from his throat and the claws dug deep into his shoulders, the wings covering his whole body, claws at the feet closing around his ankles. A long tongue shot forward and forced its way down into his throat. He buckled and his body went into spasms when the tongue filled his wind-pipe …_

_…__the feeling of anything cold and moist that was covering his calves as the floppy wings of a bat._

_Gunfire from outside broke even through the thick walls of bricks. The two privates first class pulled the captive into the poorly lit room and Aidan turned his face to the men. Henry rose from his chair._

_"__Major Durham! This is the German captive!" one of the soldiers said when he forced the man down onto a stool, his hands tied behind his back._

_Henry turned over to him and was standing right in front of the soldier. His badges of rank indicated him to be a simple soldier in the rank of a Gefreiter (private)._

_"__I´m Major Durham of the U.S. Army! You are a prisoner of war here…" Henry began. The man smelled of dust, dirt, sweat and… he could definitely smell it…Fear. Only because the man´s hands were invisible behind his back he couldn´t see them tremble with fear. But his teeth were clenched by inner tension and the smell he gave off both indicated Henry that the private was in blank fear._

_They had him caught when he had tried to slip into a tent nearby the house. Obviously he was sent out to spy around but his superior officer might have overestimated his abilities. Henry slightly smiled inwardly._

_"__Do you understand me?" he addressed his captive;"Do you speak English?"_

_The man watched him with clenched teeth, his face stern and his body was slightly shivering. Henry sighed, tried it again. He could have make use of his vampire skills but the other soldiers around would probably mention it. Not that he and Aidan won´t have been able to compel them into non-receptiveness of black eyes and changed voices, but the German looked like a rather cowardly type. No large deal to handle with him._

_Interrogations of PoW´s (Prisoner of War) were always held in the presence of witnesses due to international rules, following the Geneva Convention._

_"__Again! Do you speak English, Gefreiter? Pretending to…" Henry switched to the simplest English in the hope that the private could understand at least a little bit; "To do that you understand nothing is not good! We want to speak with you! U.S. Army will respect your rights due to Geneva Convention! Genf Convention! We are a civilized country! Not monsters!" But the men in front of you are monsters you won´t even dare to imagine but in your fantasy or worst dreams, he thought when he looked down into the face of the captive._

_Henry watched over to Aidan who slightly grinned at his son who sounded like a barely two years old kid training his language skills._

_The German tried to hide his fear, with no success. He looked at Henry and finally he slightly nodded._

_"__English speaking?"_

_"__A…a little bit! Only a little…" the German soldier mumbled. Sweat started to pour from his forehead despite the fact that it was cold outside._

_"__Okay. Tell us your name!"_

_The man looked at him and finally nodded._

_"__Gefreiter Ulrich Konzmann. Dienstnummer 24318A772. __Viertes Infanterieregiment!" he brought out._

_Henry looked at him._

_"__Dinst…nammer, that does mean your registration number in the German Army? Infantry?! Yes?"Henry´s German was less than good, contrary to his French._

_"__Yes…" The soldier stated hastily."Yes, SIR!" he added fast to prevent his captors from going pissed off by an incorrect answer. Officers of higher ranks could get really annoyed when lower ranks didn´t use a correct address._

_"__Infantry. Vier…four!" the private added._

_"__Okay! We caught you outside when you tried to enter an U.S. Army area!"Henry began; "Who told you to go there? Your superior Officer? Who is it?"_

_"__I…I am not…not allowed to tell you!...SIR!" Private Konzmann answered. He moved nervously around on his seat._

_"__What is your order, private?" Henry demanded, fixing the eyes of the young man. Damn Germans! They had chosen a rather young and inexperienced soldier for the order, a man easily to break if only enough pressure would be set upon. Henry was not fond of torturing captives. He was educated as a medic, to help people and not working contrary._

_The door opened and a Lieutenant of the French Army came in._

_Henry and Aidan turned their faces to him. It was this little distraction that gave Henry the possibility to turn his attention off the captive. The gnawing hunger subsided a bit but only a little bit. The French didn´t mention that Henry´s eyes turned back from bled black to cerulean blue. _

_"__Lieutenant?"_

_"__Major, I need these two Privates first class for a moment! " the French officer explained._

_"__Are we running out of staff, Monsieur Lieutenant?" Henry answered and directed over to the soldiers. "Je suis dans la interrogation et aux Codex Geneve il et interdit a faire une interrogation sans temoins! Il se faut connâitre, Lieutenant!" ( *I´m amidst a interrogation and due to Geneva Convention it´s forbidden to do so without witnesses. This you should know, Lieutenant!)_

_"__Je sais, Major Durham, mais j´ais besoin de votre deux comrades! Un moment seulement et ils sont retourné á vous!" ( *I know, Major Durham, but I need both your comrades. Just for a moment and they will return to you!"_

_"__Bon! Mais n´oubliez pas svp.!" (*Good, but don´t forget please!")_

_"__Merci trés bien, Major!"_

_The French officer waved to the two soldiers and together they left the room._

_The German looked at Aidan and Henry and when he looked into Henry´s eyes which had blackened again his face went pale._

_"__What…what…Oh mein Gott! Was?..." his voice was tumbling over in panic when Henry bared his fangs in front of him._

_"GO! Oh Gott! Verschwinde!...Nein! __Monster! Go…go away!" he screamed when in panic he tried to shove himself backwards with the seat, waving…and then his seat fell over backwards and he crashed to the ground, helplessly struggling with his feet._

_Henry was over him in less than a second, pushed back the dusty collar of the German´s uniform. He pushed his head to the right side, baring the throat with the pulsing vein under the sweaty skin and bit down hard._

_The man screamed like a pig._

_The first gush of blood was hot and sweet, tasty from the adrenaline in the panic stricken man. Gurgling sounds came out of the soldier´s mouth until Henry pressed one hand over his mouth and nose. He swallowed hard and fast, felt a hand on his own shoulder when Aidan appeared right behind him._

_"__Stop! You´re gonna kill him! Henry!" Aidan´s warning voice was in his ear but he was deaf to it._

_The blood was an addiction he couldn´t resist and he drank until he suddenly felt that the man didn´t move anymore under his hands._

_With a deep sigh he lifted his head, his fangs slipped back from the torn flesh with a wet sound, the blood dripping from his lower lip, his mouth area smeared with it. Henry hissed and slowly retracted his fangs._

_He looked at Aidan with a grin._

_"__Fine! You killed him! Henry…I have told you that you shall not…", Aidan began angrily._

_"__I was starving since two days!" Henry barked back and came up onto his feet again, staring down at the dead soldier with cold eyes. He wiped over his mouth with the back of his hand._

_"__We´ll have to get rid of him and…" Aidan growled and his head shot around when the steps from feet in boots sounded along the hall outside. Beside the click clack of a woman´s shoes._

_The Privates were coming back!_

_"__Crap!" Aidan cursed. "We get companionship!"_

_The boots walked nearer and…_

_…__disappeared._

_The woman opened the door._

_Aidan kicked the dead soldier under the table, pulling the table cloth over the edge, hiding him._

_"__Major Durham? I need a sub…" the woman, a female American soldier, started._

_Before Henry could react, Aidan had him by the shoulders, his arm slung around his shoulder and his hand pressed over Henry´s mouth, covering the blood tainted mouth area._

_Henry gurgled under him, twitching, his hands grabbing for Aidan´s arm without success._

_"__Hi, what´s going on here?" The woman slightly laughed when she saw the two men struggling with each other._

_"__Nothing! I only told him to keep his mouth shut about it in front of a woman. Henry is a bit cheeky and I tried to explain him how to treat a woman of honor! He´s just too young!" Aidan grinned wildly and laughed._

_The woman fell into the laughter too and she giggled._

_"__Oh…uh! I got it! Give him a lesson, Corporal Waite!" she put a file onto the table; "When you have finished your lessons, tell Major Durham I need some subscriptions under the documents."_

_She turned around and left the room again._

_Aidan let go Henry and both breathed with relief._

_"__Okay, you nasty guy of a son! Let´s get rid of this corpse before the whole Army stomps in!"_

_Henry shot him a look of innocence and shrugged his shoulders…_

"NOrrgg!"

Vicki looked onto the bed when Henry suddenly tried to sit up. She put her hands on his shoulders, one hand went into his neck and she pressed him down again carefully but determined.

"Stay down! Stay down! You can´t move!...Down!" she ordered.

His eyes were widened when he helplessly stared into her face , switching back and forth between bled black and his normal cerulean blue, all washed over with the feverish gloss. He choked hard and she supported his head when he sank back onto the cushion.

"sshhh…it´s all okay….all okay…sleep!" her voice sank down to a soothing whisper and his eyes closed again, his rasping breath became more calm and he seemed to slip back into his fever and diazepam induced sleep. His face was covered in sweat and she carefully dabbed his forehead and his cheeks down to his throat.

"Rajani…can you keep an eye onto these lesions if they grow on or will at least stop if not disappear with the antiserum…" Vicki whispered when her hand with the cold and moist wash cloth went over his face and chest.

"It´s too early to say anything about it, I don´t know how long it´ll take until this will disappear. If ever and then probably with or without any scars. Normally his body should be able to heal almost everything if he gets enough blood…" Dr. Mohadevan answered in a very low voice.

Not low enough to keep Aidan outside.

"Henry has survived this whole skinning torture crap! He will get over with that!" Aidan grunted when he looked down onto his son, who was lying on the sheets, his body bare down to the feet. This Vicki Nelson seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that she was confronted by the naked facts of the vampire kind. In the past vampires were once thought to be unable of having sex with victims, willing or unwilling, only being able to enjoy body pleasures in the act of sucking up life through the blood. Which nonsense, Aidan thought. Henry had given up his rather self restrictive manner after he had been turned. Mixing the drinking of blood with sex had become his preferred way to feed as often as he got the possibility. Doing this with a willing donor could intensify the situation for both sides; blood usually tasted better in the thralls of passion and made it worth on the donor´s side. Henry always said that he would get blood, having his pleasure and the donors got something back for their loss.

Aidan asked himself if Vicki might have had sex with Fitzroy, but the way Fitzroy had looked at her and had taken her into his arms made it rather apparently that they were far more than simple partners, that they were lovers…

And Vicki bit every impression in the ass that Fitzroy could have compelled her into anything. She was a tough and stubborn woman, resistant to any vampire´s compelling skills or mind tricks.

Aidan twinkled when he registered that Vicki came back into her room with a bowl of fresh water. He recognized that he had been deep in his thoughts so that he hadn´t mentioned it that she had left meanwhile. Vicki pulled a seat to the bedside, sat down and carefully wrapped new towels around Henry´s calves. He finally seemed to sleep under the injection, for heaven´s sake! His body was at war with the virus and he had to be on the edge to total exhaustion, worse than ever. His skin from face to ankles was spotted with these lesions, some grayish, others far more developed into blotches of skin that was broken open to bloody abrasions.

Aidan had to admire that Vicki dabbed his skin with great patience, avoiding the open wounds. Vicki didn´t show any disgust, her fingers moving over the hot skin of Henry´s belly, thighs and crotch. Her hand s in gloves slipped down between his organs and the thighs, cooling the skin of the inner side of his legs.

She felt the taunt muscles of his thighs and calves, equally developed to those she knew from Henry Fitzroy. With the turning such a body seemed to become stronger by nature, she thought. Ever again the resemblance of both men/vampires was fascinating. Henry Durham looked slightly older than Henry Fitzroy, matching him as a brother if she hadn´t known otherwise around.

When her hand slipped into his groin she felt her heart beat speeding up involuntary and caught herself on the imagination how he might be in bed. Had Henry any real love interest, a lover and how would it be to have him in her bed…?

Vampires being physical attractive to humans was a fact that added to their whole appearance.

Stay with the facts, Nelson, she reigned herself in, being a bit annoyed by herself that she had trailed away onto this vampire. It is only the physical resemblance that has distracted you, looking him so equal to Henry! Your mind is playing tricks on you, a flashback of your personal sexual experience with Henry! God, Henry would rage with jealousy if he would read her mind by now, she thought and bit her lower lip, concentrating on her nurse qualities again. Mike had reacted with jealousy when he learned to know that Vicki had sex with Fitzroy. She knew Mike to be the guy whose temper could go straight through the ceiling when he gave in into his Italian origin. And Vicki had to admit that she won´t stay back by any means. Their verbal fights had been infamous. Her physical relationship with Henry had come to a regular base over the time. She didn´t know exactly if it had been herself who finally had given in to Henry´s insistence because she simply became tired of the need to keep up an inner wall or if Henry simply had taken advantage of any of her needs to put pending things to a point finally. Not later than the moment when he had dared to kick her free will down the drain by kidnapping her after Astaroth had taken over the priest´s body and Henry had transported her over to the west coast in a cloak-and-dagger operation, she had gone mad with him. Paying no respect to her definite decision to stay in Toronto then, turning her into a vampire´s captive in the classical cliché had let grown up her wish to kill him right away the very moment he would appear in front of her. So she had spent days and nights in a comfortable room, locked up and kept separated from Henry´s night time activities with no contact to any soul outside. Henry knew pretty well that he had not only gone to lengths with it but crossed any border with Vicki. He simply wanted to save her life from Astaroth, even for the prize that he would risk his own life with it and finally losing her forever by treating her like this! In the beginning he avoided any contact to her, caring for her needs and locking himself up in another part of the house at daytime. Hiding his vulnerable vampire body behind a door which he could lock up from inside with no access for Vicki. Never before Henry has had any problems with exposing himself to Vicki like he had done in the moment when he was severely hurt by the demon attack in Queens Park and she had brought him home, staying with him all night and day long in his room when he was lying helplessly in his bed until he had been healed finally.

It almost must have torn his heart to pieces to do so with the woman he loves most of all in his whole life time. And it took Vicki weeks to understand why Henry had been willing to sacrifice his love in an attempt to know her being in safety.

When Mike had shot Henry by accident, she had cared for him until the fever was gone and this native sorceress was dead finally. Mike and a native had searched for her until they caught her amidst a ritual that should have completed Henry´s fate when Astaroth would have gotten Henry´s immortal soul. Crying Owl had made a pact with the devil, finally resulting in her own death, driving her ruthless soul to hell…

Aidan let himself sink into a small chair in a corner of the room. He silently watched Vicki while she tried to cool down the feverish body in the rumpled sheets. Fitzroy had turned over to the window, his arms folded, following his habit of looking outside over his city. From time to time he turned around and looked over to the bed, his eyes following the slim line of the tube that connected the blood bag at the wall with Henry Durham´s arm.

"You gonna go hungry, Henry…?" Vicki occasionally mentioned to him when she saw where his view went.

"Not really. I have fed tonight before I came over to you. It´s only…the view and smell of blood are always rising a vampire´s…natural appetite. Appetite…not hunger…" he whispered.

"I thought that hunger is always the natural normal status with you guys…" Vicki mumbled without emotion. Her face was pure concentration when she moved the wet cloth over the sore skin.

"It´s a question of learned control, Vicki…as it´s always with our urges, not only in vampires…" he slightly smiled. "But…

…you should rest a while and you should eat something, Vicki!" his voice became earnest. "Or did do eat before I came?" He had a hint of concern under it that couldn´t escape her, before her stubbornness would drive him into a more serious reaction. One she would really be pissed off. But sometimes he had to put some more force into it, not being able to break her will but to add authority to his words. What would Vicki lead to her most like comment; As your Grace wishes! When she was in a better, somewhat relaxed mood, she often picked up the game by going into banters like using Mike´s term of the…royal bastard of a king…

"I´m busy, Henry…as you maybe…" she stopped before she could slip into an insult. Henry was concerned about her as usual, well aware how iron willed she might become, just in case. When she had dug her teeth into anything she tended to go straight forward under all circumstances, even without self-regard! That made her an absolute trustworthy partner but she threatened also to overexert herself.

"I didn´t eat yet…" she mumbled casually in the slight hope he would be satisfied by it. But she was wrong with it. Henry seemed to be determined to ride on the theme.

"Yet! Does it mean tonight, Vicki? Or do you try to indicate this had spread over a longer period?" He was beside her with a whoosh, bending over her, his nostrils widening as if he took in her smell like…

Aidan reminded the image of nothing less but a dog…or werewolf…picking up a track… For sure Fitzroy was, like him, able to differ all these thousand smells women, and men, gave off.

Vicki bent back her head, turning her face to Henry and she tried to watch him out of the corner of her eye.

"What? What do you sniff around me? I´m no diabetic out of trail!" she knitted her brows and her voice had a hint of skepticism.

Henry bent deeper, his lips near her earlobe and he inhaled deeply. Under her slight smell of jasmine he could smell her hunger. Not relatable to the hunger of a starving vampire or…as she had so eloquently put it…a diabetic went off trail. In another situation it would have put a smile on his face but the situation was way too earnest to joke around.

"I know you all too well, Victoria. And I can smell the hunger on you! You have been starving since yesterday night!" His voice was all authority. When he called Vicki by her full name it meant game over!

Heaven, you used a term on her as if she´s a vampire! Smelling the hunger on her, her being starving! Christina had spoken to him like that when he was a newbie, a newly turned vampire, starving since three nights in the narrow box in the grave where they had buried him…

"I´m none of your comrades!" she bit back in the same tone, putting his mere thought into words. She knew him too. Deep inside, she appreciated it that he was concerned and cared for her like in the first night when he had knocked her offline in the Queens Park. Maybe it were the remains of another time into which one he was born, treating women with respect and caring for them as the weaker gender. To be honest, Vicki liked it when a man cared about a woman. Most of modern time men were warded off by the all over self-confident women of these ages when the offer of a kept open door could end up in going knocked off by an angry woman, mistaking kindness for the allegation that a woman might be weak!

"No, you aren´t Vicki if it means vampires but I won´t allow that you are starving, as well as I´m respecting that you care for a sick guest! But you have to eat, Victoria! I don´t wanna pick you up from the floor beside him!" He directed to Henry Durham. "One man on the rug had been enough! Either you´ll order anything or I can bring you something from your most preferred take out or I´ll go through your kitchen for food!"

His eyes were darkening and Vicki knew that he didn´t make jokes now!

"Did you ever cook, Henry Fitzroy?!"

"At least I have a microwave at home, beside a fully equipped kitchen which came with the condo contract!" he answered.

"And the owner before had been a vampire too, I guess!"

"No, she was human; a respectable lady."

Vicki grinned at him; "Did you ever meet this respectable lady before she sold her rooms to you? Had there even been any compelling in play when you became attracted to this condo or had it been more an interest in the owner herself?" Her face was split by a wide grin and Henry looked at her and Vicki might have laughed out when she saw the slightly irritated expression in his face before he found back to his usual calm composure.

"What you´re thinking about, Vicki?" Henry couldn´t hide a smirk; "Oh my goodness…! This condo was conveyed to me by Augustus! I only met her when we made our agreements about the prize…"

"Oh uh! I thought her to be one of your former meal on legs…" Vicki replied with a pretended casualness before she turned back to Henry Durham, being well aware that Henry´s eyes were still in her back. It took her some concentration not to turn around to Fitzroy again and look into his face to test for his reaction. But Fitzroy seemed not to react to her reply and when he answered her he had switched back to the question before.

"So, did you decide if you want take out or if I shall try to make use of the content of your kitchen…which might be rather poorly?" Vicki never kept a large stock of food because her cooking skills were poorly developed. When it came to the truth she rather trusted in Henry´s cooking skills than in her own, eventually he had grown up in a house where opulent meals were the regular in the ages he still had been mortal. To bring an end to the discussion she mumbled over her shoulder; "There should be anything in the kitchen, Henry…" and she heard when Henry walked over to the kitchen, heard him searching through the closet, the boards and the fridge.

What he found wasn´t most of all. He gave a grunting sound when he finally had put some of the content onto the kitchen table. His head turned to the door when Aidan appeared on the threshold, leaning against the door frame with one shoulder. Aidan let his view glide over the food on the table and finally ended up in Henry´s face which didn´t hide his dissatisfaction.

When he became aware of Aidan he mumbled; "I wonder how she keeps herself upright with this…!" he directed to the few boxes and bags. "How in heaven shall I make any meal of it?"

Aidan came over to the table and nodded thoughtfully. After a long moment he took up a bag with noodles.

"Let me help you with it…" he suggested with a soft voice.

"You can cook? With these few…?"

"I don´t eat human food but for a very rarely occasions but Josh, my friend is a reliable cook! I often watched him preparing meals when we have the same shift…" Aidan explained to Fitzroy with a smirk.

"…kay! If you think you can prepare anything halfway eatable from it…" Fitzroy didn´t sound all too convinced but he was willing to let Aidan try his very best at least.

Half an hour later Aidan had prepared a meal for Vicki basing on a lot of improvisation, mixing what he found even when the mixture might look strange to a cook but for a totally new direction in food combination. The result seemed to be on the edge of magic if not Fitzroy was holding some reluctance against magic in general. Out of reasons.

"Vicki! Meal for you is ready!" Aidan called over to the bedroom. "You should take it as long as it is still warm, Vicki!"

Vicki shot him a view, then watched down on her guest who was lying motionless on the sheets. Water was dripping from the wash cloth and she didn´t even notice that her jeans got wet with it. Aidan didn´t mention it but he felt more concern about her reluctance to come over. Fitzroy had said that she often tended to forget her own body´s urges over her work once she started anything. This woman was amazing but now it was time to take of her. When Vicki stayed beside the bed, Aidan sighed, No sense trying to compel her. She was resistant to it!

"Vicki! Come on! Your meal will get cold if you won´t start now!"

"I have a damn micro!" she grunted and her head indicated the direction where the microwave was placed on the kitchen board.

"Victoria…" Henry mixed in; "It´s earnest! I definitely know that when you won´t eat by now you won´t at any time later!" Fitzroy looked at her with a stern face, his voice all but comforting. It sounded more like a demand. He knew that Vicki hated it when he brought in his son-of-a-king attitude but sometimes it was simply necessary even when he was aware which effect it would have on Vicki. Either she would be pissed off or, worse, bark her biting comment at him. Being used to each other she sometimes used the same tone on him as she had done with Mike at the precinct. Only due to Henry´s patience and longer than life experience he was willing to cope with it. He knew Vicki better than she did herself.

"I have to care for Henry! It wasn´t me who asked for food…" she complained. "You have taken advantage of the fact that I´m distracted and you have simply made a decision… FOR me! I hate this, Henry…!" Her eyes, the beautiful grayish-green eyes were ablaze and her tone was sharp. Henry shrugged his shoulders inwardly. He was fully aware what might follow now after she stated her against-my-decision! One second later she would kick in the fact that once he had simply made a decision on his own, for her! Without so much as even trying to ask her before. But stop! He had asked her to come over to Vancouver with him and he only had disregarded her denial! But that had been enough to make her almost his fiercest fiend when she found herself being captured in a golden cage over there at the west coast. So before she could go on he stepped into the bedroom.

The air was thick with the smell of sweat, salty water, blood and the rather unhealthy smell of a feverish body in rumpled sheets. He shot a look at the young vampire whose chest was heaving with his raspy breath, his skin covered with blotches of what looked like abrasions, partly bloody and partly grayish like a thin layer of dust or ashes. The slim endotracheal tube was still in position and Henry´s head that was overstretched in the neck was supported by a cushion.

Vicki looked up to him when Fitzroy reached her, his hand placing on her shoulder.

"Vicki, please!"

"I´m busy, Henry!"

"This you mentioned before, Vicki…" His voice sounded tired, tired of upcoming all night long discussions. He bent over to the nightstand and grabbed a pair of surgical gloves from the box, putting them on while she watched.

"What are you up to, Henry…?"

"I´ll take over for you with him! So you have no further reason to deny the urgently needed food, Victoria!" He looked at her, his eyes darkening until there were only these dark cobalt blue rings visible around his black pupils. Vicki became aware again of the slight difference between Aidan´s and Fitzroy´s vampire eyes. She sighed and stepped aside to give him some space.

"And I don´t wanna hear any complains now that I can´t do this, Vicki! I´ve cared for you when this drug dealer almost got you killed!" he reminded the nights he had sat at her bed when Vicki was more dead than alive with the infected belly wound.

"Not the first and probably not the last time this happens to me…" she threw in casually and shrugged her shoulders while, with a last view on Henry Durham, she shuffled over to the kitchen where Aidan was waiting…

Vicki took a seat and hastily gulped down the pasta. Wouldn´t it have been for the fact that Aidan knew the reason he might have been angry about somebody eating his meal with what was on the edge to disregard. But Aidan was used to hasty humans as his friend Josh. Shifts made them fast-eaters. Vicki swallowed down a glass of water and before Aidan could say a word she was out of the kitchen again, mumbling a short "thanks" when she passed him. He shook his head and decided to clean up the sink, just to distract him from his thoughts.

In her bedroom Vicki bent over Henry Durham, critically checking his skin. Fitzroy moved to the side to give her some space while he went on with carefully dabbing Durham´s head with a cold wash cloth.

"How is he?" Vicki asked when her hand went for the pulse at the wrist. She silently counted without waiting for an answer.

"His skin is pretty hot, I guess more than mine when I had been in a fever…" his hand was moving down to the chest and with concentration he maneuvered the moist material around the abrasions. "Henry seems to sleep under the medication, at least he´s lying calmly now and he doesn´t have these coughing fits…they must exhaust him additionally and…" Henry´s voice came down to a whisper; " Rajani will have to check these lesions…I have never seen anything else on anybody since the times of the plague…How is Aidan? Does he feel well?"

"I guess so he looks tired but healthy…until now! If this doesn´t spread through the air he might stay okay. As long as he avoids drinking blood from him…And Rajani has provided Henry and Aidan with safe blood from the Toronto General stock. I sometimes wonder to which sources she has access, but what for…?"

"When does she come back, Vicki?" Henry looked over the sleeping vampire whose constitution was far than worse as far as he could define it. In his long life time he had been confronted with sick humans and his own occasional injuries but he had to confess that he had no experience with _sick_ vampires. And there had been normally no occasions to come to terms with this theme because just in case he met another of his species they went into fight or avoided each other as fast as possible. His species was definitely territorial in difference to other vampires from anywhere on the continent. This was the second time in his life that he met other blood-drinkers who preferred to live in groups, a concept that was strictly against his own nature; first of all Mick St. John from L.A. with his companions and now vampires from Boston! Augustus had rather little knowledge about the East Coast community because this family was living by their own rules. They split their territories due to their own laws, not taking care of the matters of others from outside who preferred to keep by themselves.

He looked down on Henry whose body was covered in sweat and he even meant to feel the heat that was emanating from him.

"Guess I should check his temperature again! Rajani begged for the data so she can follow up in between from her laboratory…" Vicki meant and pulled open the drawer of her nightstand. She searched through it and mumbled anything about the fact that whatever you went to search it never seemed to be on its old place. Unnoticed by her Henry bent nearer following her actions with his eyes. He smiled inwardly when her hand carelessly shoved an elongate bag aside. He definitely knew what it contained, not the first time getting sight on it. In this moment Vicki´s face turned over to him and she didn´t miss the slightly amused expression on his face when she hastily moved it deeper into the drawer in an attempt to get it out of sight.

"I anywhere had a friggin thermometer!" she tried to change themes before Henry would say anything, but without success. She could read in his face like in an open book.

"What? Yes!...And! What do you think, Henry? Even a woman needs to relax sometimes! And I can´t always be your meal on legs to get some satisfaction!" she grunted but couldn´t hide a grin under it.

"Who says that there always has to be a little meal at play? I´m quite willing to enjoy you without so much as physically exhausting your system, Vicki!" Henry smiled.

"Oh don´t tell me it´s not always out of blood, Henry!" She stared right into his face, expecting his cerulean eyes to turn black now by desire or out of hunger. But they stayed their usual sky-blue.

"Let me prove the opposite, Vicki!" His smile might have driven Vicki into smashing her fist right into his face and if just to break his obscene smiling. "I have given you the evidence before…!" Her hand moved upwards and he ducked playfully to avoid her strong left. Vicki called a strong left hand her own. He bent next to her, his nose tip was stroking over her earlobe and he inhaled her scent. Vicki took back her head, looking at him skeptically as she had done when he had done equally the first time when they had worked on the necromancer case. She suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable in the presence of three…No! Two and a half vampire around. Durham couldn´t add really to the count in the moment.

"I´m busy, Henry!" she protested in a low voice. Finally she had found the thermometer and she pulled a thin plastic cover over the tip. For a mere second she seemed to hesitate, becoming aware that taking Henry´s temperature under the tongue as Rajani had done in the hotel before was impossible. His mouth and throat were occupied by the slim metal tube that helped him breathing and there was only one place left where she would get a correct temperature… Okay, she thought, let´s go then! Without hesitation she moved her hand down between his thighs, felt for the opening. It became a bit of fumbling because she couldn´t turn him over to one side and only led by her tactile sense she moved the thermometer into his anus. She shot a look up into his face but Henry didn´t show any reaction to her. The diazepam kept him sound asleep and Vicki breathed with relief.

Whatever Henry might have been used to in bed…taking the temperature of a feverish vampire via a thermometer in his anus was for sure out of his range. When she turned around to Fitzroy she found his face stern.

"No other option left over!" she stated in defense before he might criticize her.

"I didn´t complain!" Fitzroy answered and lifted his hands in a gesture of innocence; "I was only concerned if he might cope with it…after what had happened on the living room table. But looks like he´s aware of less than anything. At least his spasms have subsided. I´m glad so far that he can sleep at least by now…" Fitzroy sighed.

A few minutes later Vicki pulled out the thermometer and moved it under the lamp on the nightstand. She turned and moved it around, narrowing her eyes in an attempt to read the scale.

"Damn! Why do they make these friggin scales so friggin small?" she cursed when her tired eyes threatened to disobey her. A hand grabbed from behind and she felt Fitzroy´s chest at her shoulder when he gently turned the scale around so he could read the result. He avoided it to comment on her weakening eyes because Vicki was in a mood it was not recommended to pour oil in the flames.

"How much?" she grunted.

"Very high! 101.1 °F… That´s higher than before! No wonder Henry went into fever seizures even when this is uncommon in adults…as Rajani stated…" Fitzroy answered and he scribbled something on a piece of paper. Vicki looked down on it and shook her head when she found Henry´s handwriting almost unreadable; "I´m used to my bad handwriting as I have been criticized for it since childhood…but…yours…oh my goodness, Henry! What´s up?" She was used to a fine lined and beautiful stylish, almost calligraphic handwriting of him. He bent deeper to her, his breath and then his lips comforting her cheek when he placed a soft kiss on it.

"Ya know that Aidan almost broke my wrist, Vicki…" he whispered.

"And it isn´t healed completely by now, Henry? That wonders me! Normally you should heal when you drink blood…"

"The emphasis is lying on _enough_ blood, Vicki…!" he softly responded.

"So you didn´t feed until now or…"

"So fast I couldn´t get to a larger amount of blood…cause I wanted to stay with you and your guests. It´s more urgent than feeding…For me! The only source I could get to this evening was a woman I fed from recently and I had to take care of it for not exhausting her…You know I always keep control, Vicki…"

"But for the fact that you almost drained me before Mike came in sight as the better option…" she reminded him of the moment when Henry had been drained by Mendoza and had been so starved that he almost was ready to drain the first human being who came into his range…

"Ya know it had been an extreme situation, Vicki…" he mumbled and Henry sounded a bit tired of being reminded of one of his worst moments again, at least as long as it came to his friends and not any random person or enemy.

"I know. Sorry, Henry…maybe I should not have put it in…" she tried to look into his eyes in the semi darkness of the bedroom, checking them for maybe being turned black as it occurred when he went angry and the vampire within him threatened to break through the surface. But his eyes were light colored and when he moved his face a bit the light from the lamp made them gleam in this glistening cerulean that could take your breath away.

"Exactly; you should not have put it in, Vicki! Cuz it hurts!" his voice was less angry but sad. Vicki was an amazing woman with a complicated background cause of her childhood and her eye disease. She can be the best and most daring and most trustworthy human one could get around and call her a friend…besides being his love…but sometimes her pulled up shields make her being thoughtless up to inconsiderateness. It took a moment before a low _ehmm_ went into his ears. Henry turned his head and by natural instincts his eyes fixed on her wrist that was outstretched into his direction. Vicki had pulled up her sleeve and pushed down the glove. It was by no means to be mistaken that she offered herself to him. The thin line of her pulse was vibrating under the delicate skin and he felt his eyes turning dark by the vampire within him. Henry cleared his throat.

"You can get blood from me, Henry…it´s some time ago since you had been feeding from me!"

Henry looked at her and it took him some effort to keep control. As long as his body was in need for a healing he was in need for blood by instinct. And it wasn´t easy to control his basic instincts. He swallowed hard and locked the animal behind its bars.

"You must not offer yourself to me as an excuse, Vicki!" He knew it was a lame escape.

"I´m not offering my blood to you as an excuse! I never did! Not since the first moment when you fed on me in Queen´s Skater Park! You´ll need your wrist soon probably, Henry!"

"When you´re gonna point on a fight to go in, you´re pretty wrong, Vic! There´s no reason for me to fight by now! I came to terms with your guests!"

"That´s not a factor anymore but the streets are never really safe, even when it is your territory! There might be other guys out as you know!"

"Kinda strange reasoning but I´m used to your kind of logic, Vicki!" he replied and took a deep breath before she would shot back.

Three hours later there was a soft knock at the front door, so low that almost only Aidan and Henry could hear it. Vicki nodded over to Aidan and he went for the door, opened it. Vicki heard him talking to a familiar female voice and a few seconds later he came in again, carrying a heavy back and being followed by Dr. Mohadevan. Vicki stood up from her seat beside the bed and indicated her to stay in the living room.

"Hi, Rajani! Did you get another dosage of the serum for him…?" she went in medias res.

"Yes, but first I have to check up! How is Henry? Any better now or…?" her voice was full of concern when she put on a pair of surgical gloves.

"He´s highly feverish…feels like this poor guy is burning up from inside…his temperature is higher than it had been in Henry when the damn witch tried to kill him!"

"Are there any further spasms or febrile seizures? You should have called me in case of, Vicki! That isn´t to be taken easily!"

"Not until now, guess…the drug you shot him keeps him down. He even didn´t wake up when I had to shove that damn thermometer up his ass."

"Vicki!" Dr. Mohadevan shot her a reprehensive view.

"What, Rajani? Guess you think for you it´s even normal to take a vampire´s temperature with a thermo in his anus? I was glad he was sleeping deep and safe cuz I didn´t want to have him gonna repeat his performance from the livingroom table!"

"He was traumatized, Vic!" Rajani whispered.

"I know! I don´t deny it but in his condition to get into panic again…I have none of the stuff here you shot him and what the heck should I have done just in case he goes mad in his fever?! Knock him out like any guy in the streets…?"

"Hmm…up to now you never had problems with sending any guy down on the planks, Vic!" Rajani couldn´t hide a slight smile then she became earnest again.

"What is his actual temperature? Gonna need know it…" Dr Mohadevan bent over Henry and felt for his pulse. She was hardly able to feel it and the pulse in carotid vein was fast and flat. "Hm, that isn´t all too well…his system is running on upper speed despite the diazepam he got!"

"He´s 101°F…guess that´s what is a fever in them. Henry…" Vicki´s thumb directed onto Fitzroy who stood at the side when he had given the doctor some space; "…had kept on around 96.8 °F at his worst…!"

"Don´t forget they are kinda different species also when they are on the same feeding habits and nutrition specialization! It is risky for me…" she turned around when Aidan came into the room. Her eyes went over his features but he seemed to be okay so far despite for the fact that he looked concerned and tired. "It´s risky for me to draw conclusions from one to the other vampire as I have no experience with them…"

"Maybe…it might be interesting to have studies around…when Bishop´s dreams would have become true and vampires might be living publicly…I mean, for you, Dr. as a scientist and forensic examiner…" Aidan began and stopped dead in his tracks when Fitzroy interrupted him;

"For heaven´s sake NO! I prefer my secrecy even when it isn´t always easy to live my way! I won´t want to open up all the secrets of my life and…my biology…" he protested.

"Of course…alone when it comes to your list of meal on legs…imagine all the ladies being on an outcome…" Vicki fell into the discussion with a grin.

"Vicki! The gentleman enjoys and keeps silent!" Fitzroy shot back with a grin. "I never offended my donors by lifting their privacy."

"You mean…you don´t have a…blood den here?" Aidan looked at him with some astonishment.

"A WHAT? Blood den? Oh my God! Don´t tell me you have a whole…house full of donors…I don´t wanna put up the imagination of a…brothel, Aidan…!" Fitzroy seemed to be shocked to some certain degree. And it explained why he had met Fitzroy two nights in a row out there in the streets of Toronto. Obviously he was feeding on random donors he found by coincidence in the clubs. And Vicki had mentioned anything about _meal on legs_. Meal on legs, the expression made him smile inwardly. The word they had used in Boston for willing donors in the Halloway or in the Sapps & Sons was less regardful; blood whores! Men and women who offered themselves for feeding; Sometimes they simply let the vampires feed and sometimes they expected sex in exchange for the blood.

"We had! Over there in Boston. It was safe until the flu spread among them step by step…" Aidan tried to explain the situation to a vampire who seemed to be upset by the sheer imagination of it.

"Oh Aidan, might we stop discussing feeding habits at the bedside of a suffering guest and vampire?" Vicki mixed in when she tried to interrupt a discussion that threatened to run out of hand by now. Her behavior produced an expression of surprise on Fitzroy´s face, now that it was obviously her who was about to side with Henry Durham. When ever had Vicki handled anybody´s feelings or emotions with a certain degree of regard because it was her who was a champion at hiding her own feelings from everybody and foremost from herself? Even Fitzroy had almost become exasperated with Vicki when he tried to break her self-made shell for multiple times. He had to confess that never before in his long lasting existence he had met a woman who was so stubborn, so strong-willed to keep up a façade he knew to be not her true self. Vicki was deep inside a vulnerable person and her armor of steel should prevent her to get hurt again and again. Thank God she had explained to him why she was so rejecting when it came to men; Her father had left his family when she was in an age when she would have needed him most of all! That break had cut a scar into her heart which had grown up the opinion in her that no man was to be trusted to really when she was forced to come to terms with a divorce in her way too young age! Henry understood her intentions all too well and only due to his long learned patience with humans he was able to love her despite all her problems. At last not to speak of her progressing eye-disease what she by herself declared as a reason for staying away from fixed relations. Henry had lost count on how much hours they had spent with discussing these, in his eyes only pretended, reasons. To him it didn´t matter and would never matter if and to which degree she was a handicapped person. He simply loved her because of what and who she was, no matter if blind or not.

Otherwise he could have rejected her long ago, would he ever look at her as a sheer hindrance.

Fitzroy avoided it to reply on Vicki. She was in a mood where she won´t be able to cope with further innuendoes without going straight thru the ceiling. So Henry kept silent and nodded over to Aidan only what he took as a sign to shut up. Henry breathed with relief.

Both watched over to Dr. Mohadevan who had been standing in the background and now she came over to the bedside again. She had taken a new bag of blood from the cooling unit and bent over Henry. For a moment she studied his face and checked his pulse a second time. His pulse and heart rate were the same as before and she hadn´t expected it to slow down until now. His body´s reaction to the virus and the fight of his immune system were equal to that of a mortal.

"Did Henry wake up in between, Vicki?"

"No, he´s sound asleep or shall I better say…stoned up to the cortex. Are you going to…" Vicki directed to the small syringe that was lying in a small plastic bag; "to shoot him a new dosage of the antiserum?"

"Yes! But this time I´ll prepare him with another dosage of diazepam before, don´t wanna have him going again into seizures…His body is on the edge! His temperature is dangerously high even when I don´t know if this is a normal level or an extreme reaction to the virus and the antiserum!"

"Wait a moment, please, Dr.!" Aidan mixed in and pulled out his cell phone, his thumb hovering above the dials.

"What is it, Aidan?" she asked softly.

"Josh maybe knows about!" Aidan threw in. When the doctor would start without so much as a level she could count on, she might endanger Henry´s life probably. His son was so weak that another fever crisis would probably kill him despite the fact he was a vampire. But the flu could kill vampires, so…

"What should your friend know about, Aidan?"

"Josh…he cared for Henry when they got him down from Mother´s lair and he came in with a high risen fever from the infected wound…"

"Okay, I would appreciate it to get more information about my patient…Maybe I better talk to Josh if you don´t mind…?" she offered with a smile. Aidan nodded and dialed the number from the phone book. It took a while until a voice from the other end of the line answered.

"Hi, Josh! It´s me!"

"Aidan! How are you and Henry? I didn´t hear from you for a while!" Josh started right away.

"For a while! Josh! Don´t go over the edge! I called the day before yesterday!"

"For sure! For a vampire who was stored underground for weeks one day or another one more doesn´t count! But I´m…at least partially human! And I almost died out of concern for you guys, Aidan!" Josh complained.

Guys! Plural! That meant that Josh cared about both of them, not only for him. But before Aidan could say another word Josh went on without so much as taking breath in between obviously.

"Henry! How is he? Is he…"

"He´s still alive. Dr. Mohadevan tries a new therapy on him to help his body fighting the damn virus which he can´t all alone on his own! And she has some questions for you, Josh! I´ll handle over now…" Aidan nodded and handled the cell over to Dr. Mohadevan.

"Good evening, Josh! I´m Dr. Mohadevan from the Toronto Forensics and I need some information from you as far as you might help me, Josh!" She heard him swallow when he first had started a new row of words but stopped now dead in his tracks. Always stay kind with the doctors, he thought. Play nice! This woman is about to help your friend´s beloved son!

"Sorry, Dr.! My name is Levison, Josh Levison. Aidan and I, we are roommates over here! I´m very concerned about my friends…that´s all…sorry…" Josh mumbled an excuse.

"Being concerned about friends is always good. That is what makes us human!" Dr Mohadevan replied with a soft and calm voice. She could hear the man´s fast breath on the other end of the line. He had to be very excited and if he ever understood how serious the situation was going for Aidan´s son it was no wonder to react such a way. But she needed information and as a forensic she knew pretty well how difficult it often was to get usable information from witnesses. But Aidan had told her that his friend was a nurse so he might be of some use to her.

That is what makes us human… Human! He was only human partially since Ray bit him into a werewolf. The good doctor can´t have even the slightest imagination of what she´s talking about so casually! Human! He was far from what normal peeps ever thought to be human!

"Josh? May I call you Josh?" she started when the pause went longer and longer. But she could still hear him breathe on the other end of the line. So he hadn´t hung up simply, was still there.

"Yeah…Josh, it´s okay with it! I mean…okay ask me, doctor! Maybe I can be of some help!"

"What is it? Is this the doctor you told me about? Any doctor they should find to get help for Henry?"

"WHAT?" Josh´s head turned around abruptly and he heard a soft click in his neck and it was followed by a slight pain of tensed muscles.

"HEAVEN! Sally! I ever told you that you should not do that again!" His hand moved up to his neck and he started to massage the base of his head.

"What shall I not do, Josh?"

"Obviously your memory is of the short time kind! Despite the fact that it is immaterial facts should not drop through like the food in this nasty little apple sized green ghost in Ghostbusters who fed from the hotel trolley! Oh my goodness! Good luck I don´t have him around in here too!" Josh grunted.

"I don´t feed on ANY stuff, Josh!" Sally complained and pulled a face.

"Sally, please! I told you please not to appear behind me all out of a sudden. I have enough trouble at hand and I don´t wanna die of a heart attack given by a ghost!"

"I don´t scare people into heart attacks, Josh!" she jumped around, becoming almost a whoosh but not exactly since she owned a body now!

"But you scared crappy Danny almost into cutting his nasty throat!" Josh grinned devilish!

"He deserved it! And…Yeap, I forget it that I can´t do that anymore!" she gasped when she had to stabilize her body after the fast move.

"That´s what I meant Sally! Stay calm and please…would you let me talk to the doctor now?" Josh sighed and looked at Sally who had placed her slim figure on the kitchen chair nearby. "Sorry, Dr.! With what can I help you?"

"I need to know how high the fever had gone in Henry when, as Aidan told me, you brought him home from the cellar where he had been hold captive. Ya´know! Aidan told me you did some surgery on him and he had this infected penetration wound in his upper body!"

"Yeap! Oh, did he tell you? Right…okay! Yes…he was feverish and I cleaned that shit up as best as I could with my simple tools here."

"Did you take his temperature then? Do you remember how much?"

"Uhm…" Josh scratched his neck when he tried to remind what he had seen on the scale then. "Uhm, if I´m right with it… it had been around 96 or 97°F! But that was the upper level and I tried some calf packing on him and when the wounds were healing the temperature went down to normal level very fast. What´s around some 90°F…"

"Has he ever been up to 101°F…?"

"No! Definitely not, Dr.!" Dr. Mohadevan heard on his voice that the 101 had somewhat given him a start and his next words testified his deep concern. "That is…I mean, Henry is on this level now? O holly Molly…"

"With the flu it´s quite normal that people get higher temperatures than in other cases of infection. Maybe I should take this as a sign that the therapy starts to work on him and his immune system is gaining momentum, so to say… we only have to take care that we keep this under control." She tried to calm down his concerns. Not necessary to make him worry more about when telling him that Henry had gone right into febrile seizures!"

"How is Henry?" Josh now dared to ask when Sally was sitting on the chair even when she warily watched him talking. Josh asked himself if in her human shape she was still able to hear other people´s voices from afar. He didn´t feel comfortable with the imagination that she had done this in the past and might do this now too, especially when it came to him and Nora in the privacy of their bedroom…

"Henry is in a high risen fever…he gets blood and liquid substitution. I applied a first dosage of an antiserum tonight plus some medication that helps him sleeping…"

"Morphine? He has gotten that before when we got him free from the cellar!"

"Diazepam."

"Diazepam?" She heard him thinking literally. Josh as a nurse could put one and one together! Diazepam and high risen fever! It had to make click in his brain. There was only one use for diazepam as a direct follow up to high risen fever; fever seizures…that normally only occurred in children up to five or six years. Or in case of epileptic seizures.

"Oh my…he went into seizures?"

"Yes…" she had to confess."I guess the reaction of his body was somewhat violent either to the virus or the antiserum. But he is steady now, don´t worry, Josh…"

"Not the facts which are calming down my concerns, Dr.!" Josh mumbled and she heard him sigh. Josh came aware that over the time and the things that had happened since the moment when Aidan had picked him up from the sleet in a cold winter night two years ago after two vampires had roughed up the _damn wolf_… Latest from the moment when Aidan had been standing on his threshold, urging him to invite his son in things had run out of hand to some certain degree. Henry in his miserable constitution covered in a cloud of blood that even Josh could have smelled from afar, had kicked his plans down the drain…these carefully set up plans that had been made to ensure them an existence of at least pretended humanity as long as nobody scratched below the surface of a werewolf and a vampire.

Neighborhood! Oh yes, their neighbors would be safe when two monsters were watching over them! Two monsters with fangs and in case of Josh…claws.

"Shall… shall I come over? I mean…it´s Toronto, isn´t it?" Josh suddenly threw in. He didn´t know if he meant for Aidan or for Henry. Henry…the vampire who had thrown up his well arranged world of abnormality again. And he asked himself if ever in his life he would come to terms with his existence. Not enough that he had been turned werewolf by a guy who had searched companionship for himself…who abnormal had a brain to be that one believes that creating a new monster would be a gift to the victim. Aidan at least was immortal even when it meant to handle his existence over the centuries but that could be a benefit for the fact that he was dependent of human blood. Aidan had turned Henry out of pity because this young medic had been accidentally attacked by a soldier who had tried to stake Aidan. Anyway Aidan had found interest in this young guy who had been all but a typical soldier. Henry had seemed to be so out of place at this place of war, blood and death… a man who had explained that he won´t being able to kill a man. Rather imaging him sitting in a library or a club of cultured men, discussing music and literature. Josh didn´t want to imagine what blood, vampire blood could make of a spiritual man…

_tbc_


End file.
